Safari Live - Day 198 | National Geographic

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

Good afternoon, and a very warm welcome to a sunny, beautiful afternoon in South Africa. As you can see, there are some big gray animals that's while moving around in front of us. My name is Tristan, and on camera I've got Craig this afternoon. It is very lovely to have you all join us aboard the largest safari vehicle in the world. We hope that you're going to have a wonderful afternoon with us as we explore the wilderness and hope that you will ask lots and lots of questions on hashtag Safari Live.

Now, behind Craig is a very curious elephant that's just poking up behind him. I don't think Craig actually even noticed that there was an Ellie right behind the car. There's a nice big herd that has come from Galago Pan, where they've been drinking, and they're slowly now just meandering through the bush feeding. It's so wonderful to have Ellies back on the property. We had a rather dry patch when it came to Ellies over the past week, and it's really good to have these guys back in the area and moving about once again. My plan is probably to spend quite some time with these guys this afternoon. I thoroughly enjoy being amongst elephants, and so it seems like the right and fitting thing to do.

The interesting thing about these Ellies is that they are right at camp, and that's why we actually found them! We are no more than I would say 200 to 300 meters from the final control building, which is straight in that way. So, there we go! There's the final control. We had some of the guys walking around there a little bit earlier. You can see the Ellies are all about the place. It just goes to show how lucky we are to live here in Juma, because we have animals that literally walk around us and live around us all the time. It's a wonderful thing to be in a place when you walk outside of your work area, and there is one all of a sudden—a big gray elephant in front of you. It's absolutely great!

Pleasant John, you say, "There is an elephant in the room!" Yes, there is! This is the one time where it is not just a saying, but rather a reality. Now, hopefully, the elephants don't actually go deeper into the FC building because there are nice new trees that have been planted there. They have put in a whole bunch of indigenous trees. Given a few years, they will grow into beautiful, big, lovely examples of some of the more rare trees that we get in this area. So, things like Cape ashes and pod mahogany, which we don't see too many of here. If the Ellies smell and stuff—given that it is winter—they will absolutely destroy all of those trees. As much as it's nice to have them on the fringes, let's hope that they don't go in there, because otherwise, all the hard work of some of the guys recently is going to be undone, and there will be death and destruction to many a young little tree.

Right, well, we're going to sit with our elephant herd. Like I say, we're going to watch them as they destroy the sickle bush that is around us. While we do that, it sounds like Sydney's off to a rollicking start of his own and wants to say good afternoon.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the beginning of my game drive! I am Sydney, and I am not traveling alone this afternoon. I am with David, my camera operator. My plan for this afternoon wasn't that difficult; it was quite an easy plan. It's just that I've already executed my plan. It was looking for the cats! I've already got Hosana as I'm talking to you now. But after this sighting, I'll be looking for some other general game. For your questions and comments, you can follow us on Twitter with hashtag Safari Live, and you can also find us on YouTube chat.

Osana is very much relaxed at the moment. But when we got here, he was sleeping completely flat. So, now I can see he's up and running. Hello, hello again to everyone! So look at Hosana! I'm not trying to pick up the information and getting updates. This cat was sleeping flat when we got here, but I cleared that just by the nick of time. The beginning of the game drive, and Hosana is starting to show some activity. Look at that moving! Showing that it's not sleeping anymore—we are so very lucky! By this time of the day, beautiful cats such as this one profess to just rest and rest, and they normally do what he is doing now late in the afternoons.

Look at that pink nose! The wind is too much, but the wind is coming towards Hosana at this stage. I'm sure Hosana can be able to detect what is on the northern side and what is on the western side. Look at that! I am not very sure in terms of the whole statistics of leopards in South Africa, as the leopards are very much shy to see them. It's not very easy. We are just very much lucky here in Juma Game Reserve. Other areas, cats such as leopards are difficult to find. I used to work for the South African National Parks, and I was based in Marakele National Park, which is not very far away from Johannesburg. And for me to see the cats, it was very much difficult. In some areas, the owners sometimes think they are not there anymore. These cats can even extend territories and even cross to some of the neighboring areas. We do have a lot of leopards in South Africa at this stage, and hunting of leopards is not allowed.

Look at that! Hosana is excited! There's something fascinating! Oh yes, there's been some impalas I can see them on that side, so Hosana is very much excited. There's some impalas; I can see them going down towards that side! Maybe that is what excited Hosana.

So let me just see what was nice thinking. But the tail is telling me that Hosana is interested in something. I normally consider eight on the tail, misanomalous. The bell—at the moment, I couldn't manage to read, but it's not that far. I think he might be a little bit hungry at the moment, so I will again check nicely when he's moving towards the eastern side. They're now trying to become fledged behind the tree, and I don't want to spoil this hunt. I will just remain here where I am now and see his intentions.

There's he moving—since like Hosana, I gave up that way; now he can see those impalas. They're right on the road, going down that side. I didn't see them; he's shown them. I saw them before me! So now it's just very relaxed by this side of the tree, where there's some little bit of... Look at that! Something surprised Hosana! He's not feeling safe as well! You can see predators are predators, but they also think about their own safety. Look at that—you can see the wind is blowing now, the wind is blowing towards where those animals are. I'm not too sure if those animals can be able to detect its presence from the sense of smell.

Normally, by this time of the day, they don't really pay for mounting activities. While I'm here with our Hosana, I still have got my other colleague James, who has not yet introduced himself. Let's hear from James now.

I am introducing myself! I'm standing here in the valley of the Gresham Remati, on my way down south to find Tandi! It is checked; my name is James Henry, and I'm here on a Sunday afternoon bush walk. More often than not, in the last little while, I have been on a bush walk on Sunday, which has been great fun! It has a nice sort of warm Sunday afternoon feel about at the moment. Sebastian Jambé, the greatest French Gabonese Air Force pilot in history, is on camera. And of course, I have not forgotten... Well, not new, but certainly first seen today! Herbert Kosa in royal navy blue! And I think you can have royal navy blue! It's either royal or navy, but I'm not sure what that one is. Anyway, my plan today, like I said, is to head down towards the sort of central sections of Juma, central south, and see if we can't find some sign of Tandi and her nine-month-old daughter, Sambura. Well, Sambura is actually very close to here; you've just been with him and Sydney. So we'll just quietly sort of sneak around and then move down towards the central parts.

There's quite a lot of bird activity around here, which is not particularly usual for the wintertime, and I wanted to show you some arrow-marked babblers and some oxpeckers. You can see the babblers just hopping on the floor there. Say "butt," if you can see them just in the undergrowth there. Birding on foot, you'd think intuitively would be easier than in a car, but actually, it isn't! It seems easier from a vehicle! So those are the arrow-marked babblers. And if we just look down here, you can see the very thickly wooded banks of this dry riverbed.

There's a lovely little breeze blowing now, making that sort of dry, hot, warm winter air rustling of the leafless trees. Mario, it's very simple to work out a wooden direction! You do this when your finger feels cold; you stop. That's where the wind's coming from, and you work out the direction. It's pretty simple! Here, Mario, it's almost always, interestingly, it's not south-east today; it's almost always coming from the southeast. Now today, usually, it's coming from the northwest, so that is quite strange. All you do is feel which way it's coming from, work out the direction, and you go for it. It's no more complicated than that, really! It can swirl slightly, and if it does start to swirl, well then, I have me trusty ash bag in here, which is a sock. And if you've seen the ash bag before, it was merely a sock filled with ash! And I already said there you can see the air is blowing—well, actually interestingly, in a slightly easterly direction.

Ah, it's all swirling all over the place. Love my—no, I'm afraid not! Haven't seen any cheetah for a while! We were expecting that mother and two cubs to come back this way. They were certainly heading this way about a week ago now; they were heading back this way, but they seem to have turned and gone back towards the west. Perhaps that has something to do with the return of the Inka Huma pride back here. Cheetah will generally try and avoid being anywhere around the dominant predators, especially lions. There is some research from this area that suggests their distribution is almost entirely predictable from lion calls. So where there are lions calling, you will not find cheetahs, so perhaps the return of the Inka Humas to the north here has sent them away. We're going to continue down this magnificent little game path in the middle of this dry riverbed, a game path made by elephants.

Well good luck, James! I hope that you find Tandi and Koluma. I was going to head off in that direction myself before we bumped into these Ellies. So once we're done with the Ellies, a little bit later, we'll probably go and give James a bit of a hand in that area and try and see if we can find the new queen of Juma. It's been a while since I've spent a long time with her, so I would really like to go and have a nice afternoon with Tandi, and hopefully, it'll be Koluma as well.

The Ellies are still doing what Ellies do best: feeding their way through the vegetation. Really interesting to watch them at the moment. Their diet is very varied, feeding on all kinds of different things. Watching them go from bush willows to baby plants of varying descriptions, there's been a few led words that have been eaten, there's been all kinds of things that they've been going after.

There was a bit of grass, there's been a few tubers that have been trying to be dug up. It was even a big fallen-over tree that was pushed in our direction, which was very funny because she lifted this massive tree with thorns and all and was pushing it. It looked as though it was going to land on our car! When I say "it was a fallen tree," it was not a small fallen tree—probably double the height of the vehicle. I thought, "Well, this is not going to end well," because it might hit the side of the car where she just didn't give it enough force. She pushed it, and it got to the perpendicular, and then gravity took hold—not in the way that she had intended. It took hold back towards her and ended up hitting her square in the forehead, which she doesn't appreciate too much!

Others shouldn't really seem to face it. She kind of just threw it off to the side and then carried on with her day. But it was quite funny to watch because it did not go the way that she had envisioned it. Then after that, we had this little baby come along. This little guy is probably the most relaxed baby elephant I think I've ever seen. At one point, it was about maybe two meters from the car, and mom wasn't exactly that close, and the circle just fit its way right towards us. It didn't worry at all about coming near the car, which is quite strange. Generally, little babies, they're curious but they don't get too close.

Alicia, you say your day is perfect now! Well, it's not the worst way to start the day, that's for sure. Starting an afternoon with a herd of elephants and a leopard within the first two minutes of our safari really is not bad at all! In fact, if you came out to Africa and had that in your first two minutes of safari, you would be considered very lucky! So it has been a wonderful start to our afternoon! I'm thoroughly enjoying the fact that we've got little Hosana back at the camp. He must have been behind that dam wall. You say this afternoon and this morning, they just must have been missing him the whole time. I'm sure yesterday with those alarm calls, it was him, but somehow managed to miss him!

Now there's a female coming out in front of us that is heavily, heavily pregnant. Look at how swollen her abdomen is! That's amazing! So you can see. Look at how she's bulging on the sides there around her hip areas. So that's very cool to see—very swollen! I wonder how far she is from giving birth. It would be nice! Imagine we got a little baby elephant being born in the next few days. That would be quite cool! It's very seldom that you're going to catch an elephant giving birth. Most of the time, they give birth at night for some odd reason! I don't know why that is, but it's generally that way—maybe it's to do with the fact that they can feel like they're more undercover and have a little bit more peace and quiet.

But I would think that giving birth at night would be a lot more dangerous with things like hyenas and lions and those sorts milling about! But maybe you will find that they are aware of the fact that predators are around and the whole herd will help just to protect this female as she gives birth. But very, very swollen tummy! Quite amazing how much it's protruding!

So Jake, yes, maybe Ellies will suck their trunks quite regularly. You'll find that they put it in their mouth and they suck it quite a lot. In fact, if you go to some of these elephants' rehabilitation areas, you'll find that if you put your hand there, they suck on your hand quite regularly! They'll put their own trunks in and they'll suck each other's trunks a little bit. So they do do a lot of that kind of thing, and why they do it, I'm not quite sure. Maybe it's very similar to how babies stimulate the same motion or same behavior of suckling.

I don't know, but it's an interesting behavior for sure. But how amazing is that now! Rickson has just got an art and mobile. I need to just quickly give him an update because I think Sydney's still learning the ropes with the game driver idea. Rick has a nice big herd of elephants just on the western side of final control, and then there's Hosana at Gary Dam! So here we go, I just gave Rick a little update quickly, and that he can then get his safari planned.

While we sit with our Ellies for a while longer, I'm thoroughly enjoying how relaxed this herd is. I spend most of our time, like I say, with him while it's still bright and sunny. And while we do that, let's send you back across to Sydney and Hosanna. I wonder if he's gotten any closer to those impalas.

Hosanna decided to sleep at the moment! Unbelievable that Hosanna was so very much active, wanting to go and chase the impalas! But now Hosanna looks completely different as if it's not the one who was that very active earlier on! But the behavior we are seeing now is normal—very normal to the cats! What we nearly saw when he was falling in love with the impala—chasing the impalas—is something which is not normal! Because normally, they prefer to hunt when the sun is cool, but now the sun is very easy. Now, he's interested again! Maybe there's something again?

You see how fast these cats are! It was like completely flat, and he woke up at a very fast speed. Now he's aiming down there, so let me just try and see what he's aiming at. You can see that. The fact that these cows are relaxed—take care! I didn't get the question very well! I just hear that you're asking something to do with the whiskers. I am not too sure if the whiskers can grow throughout their lives. But the whiskers are very, very important; they've got a very, very vital role because if they don't have whiskers, it becomes very difficult for them to judge the space in between the branches and in between the stems.

So when these animals are hunting and when also moving around, they have got to be guided by their whiskers. Whiskers can be able to sense the space in between the bushes. If you look at the hairs by the ears, you'll see that yes, the heads of the ears are very much hairy inside, so those hairs may be assisting them in order to hold that—a lot of sound. Aim the leopards can run very fast! They can go up to 94 kilometers per hour, so they can run at about 24 meters per second. So they can be able to jump—not too sure in terms of the meters—but they can run very fast and they can leap very high!

Maybe it's gonna show us if any of the prey comes nearby, we might see how fast this leopard can go! And the meters, how the gap in between their legs! I'm still going to be here looking at this cat, but while I'm here looking for the cat, James is busy looking for some of the smaller things!

Let's see what James has got so far! Every time I come along this little part of the reserve, walking with Herbert, he goes, "Something like this! Ish, madam! Four! There's a big number here, which means you can't believe the size of the mamba that lives over here!" And there are about five or six points around the reserve that Herbert says that, and this is one of them. And they're roughly, I'd say about... oh, it's an inch and a half, is the width of this mamba's belly! So you can see my finger there! That probably means that this mamba is in the region of between... probably was between six and eight feet long, so he's a fairly long, fairly venomous snake! Well, him snake, and he probably lives somewhere there—territorial, of course.

I mean, he says that a mamba lives here; he does mean in these environments, and it could easily live—interesting—easily live in this hole! Come over here, sit! Obviously, if the mamba comes back off quite fast! Right! Here's a hole! Now, I would have said that that was a rodent hole, but I wouldn't say it's strong enough for me to put my hand down there. It looks like the hole of a gerbil—a bushveld gerbil.

Yes, in fact, it is! Jim, you say, "You know not, you just a bit scary, but not you!" Look at this! You see this stuff here? That is from a rodent making a nest! So this rodent has cleared away a spot! I'm sure he's taking some of that down into his nest, and he'll be down there! I'm gonna poke him with my stick, but it would be quite lucky that the mamba didn't discover him! They're very interesting!

Okay, mambas, of course, would be hibernating—I put it in inverted commas, because I'm not convinced that's the right term for what they do in the winter here. Yes, they go to sleep for a while if it gets cold, but it's probably about 80 degrees today, which is very pleasant! And so they will be out and about looking for things like that poor little gerbil to eat! Let's go back to Tristan and his much larger things than gerbils!

Well, it's very, very cool that you guys have joined us right now because there's some really interesting behavior taking place! What you can see is a little baby elephant that's busy eating the dung of its mother! So we don't often get to see this at all, but it's very common in elephants when the little babies... what they'll do is once the mother goes to the vital bacterias that they'll put into their stomach! So as they eat that, they're getting all kinds of things that are being added to their digestive system, which are going to help them digest the different things that they eat through their life!

It's vitally important that baby ellies do this; in fact, baby elepant babies that don't do this and don't get a chance to—if their mom dies before they get a chance to—very, very seldom will actually survive because they don't get all the antibodies that they need and all the different types of bits of goodness, shall we call it, that they need from their dung! It's not often you see it at all! Normally, you kind of watch them, and they'll take maybe a little mouthful, but this little one has been feeding off it for a good five minutes or so!

I'm so glad that we got to see it; it's not something that I've seen in a very long time, for this length or lips period that it's been doing it for, that length of time, is very, very cool to see! And that little baby's benefiting! It sounds really gross, but it's very important for them to be able to do this and to be able to get all of the nutrients from it!

So Paula, you say, "Oh well, don't worry! It's not just them that does this! There are a few other animals that do! In scrub here, survive pretty much you're eating their own dung every single day!" So it's not something that goes well with us, but remember also that they have a very different diet to carnivores and to even omnivores. There's a lot less harmful bacteria in a vegetarian-based diet! These guys are eating, you know, grasses and leaves and branches, so there isn't really not that much that's bad inside.

That's why we can, as people, pick up their dung and break it apart and look in it and kind of scrounge through it! If we were, you wouldn't really do that with anything other than these big vegetarian-based animals! So you know, if you did that with something like... I don't know, our lion, you're asking for a lot of trouble! You're gonna end up in a situation where you're gonna get very bad bacteria on your hand, and you're going to make yourself extremely ill if you go digging around in lion poop or something like that! It's much better for these vegetarians to be able to do it!

So very interesting! So cats, there's a very simple reason why the Ellies do not get names, but the big cats do, is that Ellies are not territorial! And if you would like to name twenty thousand elephants, you're more than welcome, because I'm pretty sure recognizing twenty thousand individuals would be beyond the scope of 99.9% of us guides! None of us have got majorly big brains, and that would be very difficult for us to be able to sort out one from another!

So that's pretty much the reason—one, because there are too many, and two, because they're not territorial! And that means that we might see this herd today, but we don't see this herd again for six months! To recognize that specific individual six months later is very difficult! So Faith—sorry, coming through very soft—and I missed the name! Sorry, Faith! I can't get the name at all; it is really struggling with it, but essentially the Craig can you hear that because I can't hear anything! Anyway, so the question was—I can't get the name—but the question was along the lines of does the baby really have to eat its mother's dung? Can it eat any adult's dung?

So generally, you'll find with little baby Ellies is that they only eat their mother's dung because then they are normally very close to their mom, and so that makes it much easier for them to be able to feed off that and be able to, you know, get the nutrients from her! It's much harder for them to go and get a situation where they find other individuals' dung! It's quick and easy just to go behind mom as she drops and feeds off that.

So I'm pretty sure that with the milk she provides and the herd dung, it's probably a better recipe for them to be feeding off that! But it's not really stopping them from eating others' dung! I wonder if it would be in any way different if they ate somebody else's dung? Whether it would be different if they ate male or female dung, I’m not sure to the answer to that, to be honest. There might be somebody that studied it, but I don't know. I've never seen a little baby eating another member's dung; it's only ever from their mom. So it must just be hardwired into them that they only have that trust relationship to eat their mom's poo, not somebody else's!

But that's one of the young bulls that's on the fringes of the herd. The herd is slowly but surely kind of going over the road now. They're heading towards quarantine, and I'm hoping that the whole herd pushes on to quarantine and we'll be able to get them all together and we'll be able to see how many are actually here because it is a nice sized herd. There are still more coming from the northern side heading south, and so I reckon there must be at least 25 to 30 individuals here, maybe more, which is very... it's always nice to have big herds! Good! Well, our knees are still feeding and still being quite busy, but I think Sydney is still with us on Hosana, and I wonder if he is still as sleepy as he was the last time we saw him.

A beautiful elephant sighting, feeding and learning about the little ones eating the droppings of their mothers! I am still here with Hosana, and as you can see, he doesn't have any other plans this afternoon except having a rest! And I'm just thinking now that after this sighting, I'll be heading out and see if I can find other interesting things and come back at the right time because I know cats later on they'll be active! I will find him. He might go to the waterhole; he's not very far away from the waterhole—just a couple of meters away!

So now I think I must have to give him time to rest and see if I can find other interesting animals! I did observe the bellies, so I did look at the bellies; I can see that there are chances of him doing some hunting are very much high! And then we can go to Tristan and see the baby elephants!

Well, Sydney, this baby elephant is having probably the best day it's ever had! Because not only has it been eating poo, but it walked behind mom, and mom just lifted its tail and decided to plunk a big fat ball of poo on its forehead! So, as you can see, there's a horrible big stain of poo meltdon forehead now! I'm sorry to call, and you need some toilet paper to clean that up! That doesn't look ideal at all!

Shame! Can you imagine having somebody drop poop on your head? What an ideal—I’m sorry I’m laughing at you; I know it's not funny, but these things happen, don't worry! Well, we'll tell mom off for you! So, you can see they're right in front of the car at the moment. Shame, that one—it's a bad day, like I say! I mean, not only do you have to eat somebody's pee, but when it gets shoved on top of your head as well, it's not very clever either!

And so it just goes to show walking behind an elephant is never the safest place to be because, well, they just are uncontrollable in the way that they will lift their tail and deposit their dung! Yes, you are quite something! Should we stop talking about you? Hmm! It really has gone everywhere! Not only is it on its head, but it's all over its front leg!

It's a shame! Poor thing! That's not a bad... not a good day! Now, look at this elephant on the left! That's busy digging for a root! Also, mom has gone down and pushed her trunk! And look! You see! She's got the tuber! Did you see?! She dug it up completely! Now hopefully she's going to take it out of her mouth again! You can just see it in between, obviously, there would be a tree right away! We don't want it to be! Hopefully, she's gonna move a step forward, and we’ll be able to see it!

But there's a massive tuber, and she used a tusk to dig it into the ground and then lift it up! That's how she exposed that tuber and took it into her mouth, which is very interesting because we've found in a lot of these tubers lying on the ground. From the ellie, she's now got it between her trunk! Did you see that? Absolutely amazing! She took her trunk and she twisted it, and then took her tusk and broke the roots, and was able to actually expose the nutrients on the inside!

And she's still busy using the trunk as just a place to hold and to keep things nice and stationary while she feeds! But there's a bit of that tuber in the curve of her trunk currently! Little baby, don't walk there! You have you not learned your lesson? You're going to get poo on your other side of your head as well! Be careful! Well, lesson learned—do not walk behind an elephant!

And so while we contemplate that, let’s send you back across to James, who I'm sure will have something funny to say about being pooped on for this poor little lady!

I don't think that I have anything funny to say about being pooped on! I'm not sure being pooped on is particularly funny! Anything happens to somebody else, then it's utterly hilarious! And I've told you the story a few days ago, actually, about a girlfriend I once had who was covered in hard lead our dung after she gave them fright, and I thought it thoroughly deserving on her part! I used the term karma when she came home that evening! Wonderful day that was! One good day and years of bad ones!

Alrighty! We have a HP here! And obviously, it's a tree! You can see that, and I'm going to put it to you, viewers! What tree is this? It is a Virginia, obviously! So, you are not getting any points for getting the genus right! I'm asking you because I'm slightly confused as to the species! I think it's one of two, and I'm really not sure which I'm going to go for! So, Judy H, if you're watching, you can have a guess—Virgilia!

Oh! While you think about it, I'm going to extract a little bit of gum from it! Then you say it's a toothpick tree! Well, yes, I suppose! It might be to victory! They also apparently used to use these thorns for gramophone needles, if you can believe it! That is not the official botanical name, of course! Here is a little bit of amber for which these, what used to be called acacia trees, are famous! And it is this, of course, that all the bush babies are going for at the moment! So when we find them at night hopping between the trees, we know that this is what they're going for!

I'll eat some! It's not very good; it's got a kind of slightly no taste, bitter taste to it! There's another big lot over here, see? And this lot is being tended by ants now! I think it seeps this gum in order to attract ants because by having the ants here, of course, it will make—they will make a vague attempt to protect the tree from browsing predators like giraffes and impalas.

Paula, it is not an acacia anymore, and it's a Virgilia! Remember we're not allowed to call our phone trees acacias anymore! The Australians have taken that honor for themselves, which I think is a great leader satisfying! But anyway, this used to be an acacia, but it's not a knob thorn! No! You can see it's got very long thorns! I think it's one of two things! I'll show you one more thing in the tree before I give you my theories, because you are not giving me any of your theories, which is making various all in my heart!

Over here in the middle of the tree is what looks like a blue wax bill's nest! My only problem was saying what looks like a blue expose nest is that when I pull out this feather over here, most definitely not the feather of a blue wax bill! It looks like the feather of a night jar, perhaps! And I wonder if the blue wax bill that made this nest didn't find perhaps a carcass of a night jar and used the feathers to line the nest for its little babies?

If I was a little bird, I wouldn't mind being born in blue wax bill, because they have such a very comfortable nest! Because if you're born of Wahlberg's, a little something like that, well you lie on forms basically! You may as well be one of those people who lie on beds of nails!

Any guesses further, their faith about the specific name of this tree? Nothing? You've all given up? Okay, well, it is Sunday afternoon; I understand! I think that this is probably a Virgilia robusta! What is it? The splendid thorn? Or is it the red thorn? Virgilia Gerardi? The red thorn is normally given the name because it's got red ends to the twigs, but I don't see any bread ends really, and it's quite... it's got very long forms, so I think it probably is a splendid thorn! But it may well be a different variety from the one that we often see down on the river!

There we are! Thank you, Robust! That's exactly what I was looking for! For chillier robusta! Was that you googling, Faith, or was it a viewer? Emma Google, well done! Googling, you've done very well! I think it's a Virgilian robusta! They do come in a number of varieties out here! So that's what that is!

No, well, they sort of are acacia! And if I break a thorn off and try not to impale my finger on it, there are animals that, in fact, will sting the thorns! And that stinging causes that wood inside to form a spongy material, which I think is quite nutritious! But that's basically wood! That's basically cellulose! And cellulose is extremely difficult for any animal to digest unless it has got cellulase in its gut or bacteria to help it digest the cellulose!

And you know, I didn't think it's particularly nutritious at all! Just while I was talking there, if you look—oh! That's a laugh! Sit! You see there are a whole lot of cocktailed ants feeding on the gum! Meireles cocktailed because their tails are cocked! Fantastic! And we'll leave it at Virgilia robusta! I think Tristan's now heading sort of towards where we are—let's go and find out!

I have got one of the very much interesting tree here, and I want to show you something, as this morning while I was out on a guided walk, there was a question about the elephant ring-barking the tree! So now I want to show you the consequences of elephants doing that!

So if you look at this tree, this whole area here, the back is not there! Let me go around this tree and just try and see how much bark is taken off! So I can see that is quite a very large piece of this tree! But this tree is one of the trees that has narrowly escaped death because when looking here, I can see that the skin is coming back! Because this area here was not touched by the elephants! It’s the one which is now surviving this whole tree! So look at how big this tree is!

And then the small part which is supporting this whole tree! But it is very difficult to tell if this tree is going to be able to survive! I can promise you now the amount of nutrients that are taken from the ground up by this—it will be survived, this whole tree! So the elephants—this is what they do mostly now during the season! If we can check the damage caused by the elephants during the dry season, it's not the same as the damage caused by the elephants during the summer season!

Summer season, the elephants, they feed from these branches, and the branches by summer season, they are very much nutritious! And the leaves—they have got quite a lot of nutrients! So during the dry season, the trees will take everything and withdraw everything back under the ground by the roots, and these elephants, because they have been here for quite a long time, they are adapting quite a lot of strategies to overcome the challenges with regards to the dry season!

And all they are doing now is digging and uprooting the trees and trying to get hold of those nutrients! So now by this season, elephants, they just caused quite a lot of damage! So now I will be moving towards the eastern side of the game reserve to see! I just want to go around the tree house now and see if maybe there's anything going there to drink, because when the Sun is very hot like these, the chances of animals going to drink, they are very much high!

So now I am heading towards the tree dam. Let's go to Tristan and see some of the elephants already—they are starting doing what I was talking about: ring-barking in the trees!

Well indeed, Sydney, they are stripping vegetation on masts, and I haven't been too destructive, I suppose, on trees just yet, but I suppose it's coming! As we get into more wooded areas, we'll start to see that the same destruction that Sydney was pointing out just now! But rarely it's been a beautiful sighting of these Ellies! They must be one of the most relaxed herds I've seen in quite some time!

They've been absolutely all around us! All the time and have not even blinked an eyelid as they've been moving around the vehicle! We've had little babies up close! We've had moms walking right in near us! And there's been no sign whatsoever of the herd even changing their behavior for one second!

So super relaxed! Must have spent a lot of time around vehicles out here in the Sabi Sands! You can see this female; she's about as round as she is tall at the moment! And I was just saying to Craig she reminds me a bit of a hot air balloon at the moment because she's got these little skinny legs that go down and then this massive, massive body that is very, very round at the moment!

So she's going to be giving birth, I would imagine, fairly soon! I don't think it'll be too much longer, and she'll be having her little one somewhere! Now it would be nice if we got to see it being born! That would be quite cool!

It’s very seldom that you're going to catch an elephant giving birth! Most of the time they give birth at night for some odd reason! I don't know why that is, but it's generally that way! Maybe it's to do with the fact that they can feel like they're more undercover and they are in a little bit more peace and quiet!

But I would think that having given birth at night would be a lot more dangerous with things like hyenas and lions and those sorts milling about! But maybe we will find that they are aware of the fact that predators are around, and the whole herd will help just to protect this female as she gives birth!

But very, very swollen tummy! Quite amazing how much it's protruding! So Jake, yes, maybe Ellies will suck their trunks quite regularly! You'll find that they put it in their mouth and they suck it quite a lot! In fact, if you go to some of these elephants' rehabilitation areas, you'll find that if you put your hand there, they suck on your hand quite regularly! And they'll put their own trunks in and they'll suck each other's trunks a little bit!

So they do do a lot of that kind of thing! And why they do it, I'm not quite sure! Maybe it's very similar to how babies stimulate the same motion or same behavior of suckling! I don't know, but it's an interesting behavior for sure! But how amazing is that now?

Rickson has just got an art and mobile! And I need to just quickly give him an update because I think Sydney's still learning the ropes with the game driver idea! Rick’s got a nice big herd of elephants just on the western side of final control and then there's Hosana at Gary Dam!

So here we go—he just gave Rick a little update quickly and that he can then get his safari planned! But while we sit with our Ellies for a while longer, I'm thoroughly enjoying how relaxed this herd is! I spend most of our time, like I say, with him while it's still bright and sunny! And while we do that, let's send you back across to Sydney and Hosana! I wonder if he's gotten any closer to those impalas!

Hosana decided to sleep at the moment! Unbelievable that Hosana was so very much active, wanting to go and chase the impalas! But now Hosana looks completely different as if it's not the one who was that very active earlier on! But the behavior we are seeing now is normal—very normal to the cats! What we nearly saw when he was falling in love with the impala—chasing the impalas—is something which is not normal! Because normally, they prefer to hunt when the sun is cool, but now the sun is very easy!

Now, he's interested again! Maybe there's something again? You see how fast these cats are! It was like completely flat, and he woke up at a very fast speed! Now he's aiming down there! So let me just try and see what he's aiming at! You can see that! The fact that these cows are relaxed—take care! I didn't get the question very well! I just hear that you're asking something to do with the whiskers!

I am not too sure if the whiskers can grow throughout their lives, but the whiskers are very, very important! They've got a very, very vital role because if they don't have whiskers, it becomes very difficult for them to judge the space between the branches and in between the stems! So when these animals are hunting and when also moving around, they have got to be guided by their whiskers!

Whiskers can be able to sense the space in between the bushes! If you look at the hairs by the ears, you'll see that yes, the heads of the ears are very much hairy! Inside, so those hairs may be assisting them in order to call that a lot of sound! Aim the leopards can run very fast! They can go up to 94 kilometers per hour, so they can run at about 24 meters per second!

So they can be able to jump—not too sure in terms of the meters—but they can run very fast and they can leap very high! Maybe it's gonna show us if any of the prey comes nearby, we might see how fast this leopard can go! And the meters! How the gap is in between their legs! I'm still going to be here looking at this cat, but while I'm here looking for the cat, James is busy looking for some of the smaller things!

Let's see what James has got so far! Every time I come along this little part of the reserve, walking with Herbert, he goes, "Something like this! Ish, madam! Four! There's a big number here, which means you can't believe the size of the mamba that lives over here!" And there are about five or six points around the reserve that Herbert says that, and this is one of them. And they're roughly, I'd say about... oh, it's an inch and a half, is the width of this mamba's belly! So you can see my finger there! That probably means this mamba is in the region of between... probably was between six and eight feet long! So he's a fairly long, fairly venomous snake!

Well, him snake, and he probably lives somewhere there—territorial, of course. I mean, he says that a mamba lives here he does mean in these environments! It could easily live—interesting! Easily live in this hole! Come over here, sit! Obviously, if the mamba comes back off quite fast! Right! Here's a hole! Now, I would have said that that was a rodent hole, but I wouldn't say it's strong enough for me to put my hand down there! It looks like the hole of a gerbil—a bushveld gerbil!

Yes, in fact, it is! Jim, you say, "You know not, you're just a bit scary, but not you!" Look at this! You see this stuff here? That is from a rodent making a nest! So this rodent has cleared away a spot! I'm sure he's taking some of that down into his nest, and he'll be down there! I'm gonna poke him with my stick, but it would be quite lucky that the mamba didn't discover him! They're very interesting!

Okay, mambas, of course, would be hibernating—I put it in inverted commas, because I'm not convinced that's the right term for what they do in the winter here! Yes, they go to sleep for a while if it gets cold, but it's probably about 80 degrees today, which is very pleasant! And so they will be out and about looking for things like that poor little gerbil to eat! Let's go back to Tristan and his much larger things than gerbils!

Well, it's very, very cool that you guys have joined us right now because there's some really interesting behavior taking place! What you can see is a little baby elephant that's busy eating the dung of its mother! So we don't often get to see this at all, but it's very common in elephants when the little babies... what they'll do is once the mother goes to the vital bacterias that they'll put into their stomach! So as they eat that, they're getting all kinds of things that are being added to their digestive system, which are going to help them digest the different things that they eat through their life!

It's vitally important that baby ellies do this; in fact, baby elephant babies that don't do this and don't get a chance to—if their mom dies before they get a chance to—very, very seldom will actually survive because they don't get all the antibodies that they need and all the different types of bits of goodness, shall we call it, that they need from their dung! It's not often you see it at all! Normally, you kind of watch them, and they'll take maybe a little mouthful, but this little one has been feeding off it for a good five minutes or so!

I'm so glad that we got to see it; it's not something that I've seen in a very long time, for this length of time that it's been doing it for is very, very cool to see! And that little baby is benefiting! It sounds really gross, but it's very important for them to be able to do this and to be able to get all of the nutrients from it!

So Paula, you say, "Oh well, don't worry! It's not just them that does this! There are a few other animals that do! Scrub here can survive pretty much you're eating their own dung every single day!" So it's not something that goes well with us, but remember also that they have a very different diet to carnivores and to even omnivores! There's a lot less harmful bacteria in a vegetarian-based diet! These guys are eating, you know, grasses and leaves and branches, so there isn't really that much that's bad inside!

That's why we can, as people, pick up their dung and break it apart and look in it and kind of scrounge through it! If we were, you wouldn't really do that with anything other than these big vegetarian-based animals! So you know, if you did that with something like... I don't know, our lion, you're asking for a lot of trouble! You're gonna end up in a situation where you're gonna get very bad bacteria on your hand, and you're going to make yourself extremely ill if you go digging around in lion poop or something like that! It's much better for these vegetarians to be able to do it!

So, very interesting! So cats, there's a very simple reason why the Ellies do not get names, but the big cats do, is that Ellies are not territorial! And if you would like to name twenty thousand elephants, you're more than welcome, because I'm pretty sure recognizing twenty thousand individuals would be beyond the scope of 99.9% of us guides! None of us have got majorly big brains, and that would be very difficult for us to be able to sort out one from another!

So that's pretty much the reason—one, because there are too many, and two, because they're not territorial! And that means that we might see this herd today, but we don't see this herd again for six months! To recognize that specific individual six months later is very difficult! So Faith—sorry, coming through very soft—and I missed the name! Sorry, Faith! I can't get the name at all; it is really struggling with it, but essentially the Craig can you hear that because I can't hear anything!

Anyway, so the question was—I can't get the name—but the question was along the lines of does the baby really have to eat its mother's dung? Can it eat any adult's dung? So generally, you'll find with little baby Ellies is that they only eat their mother's dung because then they are normally very close to their mom, and so that makes it much easier for them to be able to feed off that and be able to, you know, get the nutrients from her!

So I'm pretty sure that with the milk she provides and the herd dung, it's probably a better recipe for them to be feeding off that! But it's not really stopping them from eating others' dung! I wonder if it would be in any way different if they ate somebody else's dung? Whether it would be different if they ate male or female dung, I’m not sure to the answer to that, to be honest! There might be somebody that studied it, but I don't know! I've never seen a little baby eating another member's dung; it's only ever from their mom!

So it must just be hardwired into them that they only have that trust relationship to eat their mom's poo, not somebody else's! But that's one of the young bulls that's on the fringes of the herd! The herd is slowly but surely kind of going over the road now! They're heading towards quarantine, and I'm hoping that the whole herd pushes on to quarantine and we'll be able to get them all together and we'll be able to see how many are actually here because it is a nice sized herd! There are still more coming from the northern side heading south, and so I reckon there must be at least 25 to 30 individuals here, maybe more, which is very... it's always nice to have big herds! Good!

Well, our knees are still feeding and still being quite busy, but I think Sydney is still with us on Hosana! And I wonder if he is still as sleepy as he was the last time we saw him! A beautiful elephant sighting, feeding and learning about the little ones eating the droppings of their mothers! I am still here with Hosana, and as you can see, he doesn't have any other plans this afternoon, except having a rest! And I'm just thinking now that after this sighting I'll be heading out and see if I can find other interesting things and come back at the right time! Because I know cats later on they'll be active! I will find him!

He might go to the waterhole; he's not very far away from the waterhole—just a couple of meters away! So now I think I must have to give him time to rest and see if I can find other interesting animals! I did observe the bellies, so I did look at the bellies; I can see that there are chances of him doing some hunting are very much high! And then we can go to Tristan and see the baby elephants!

Well, Sydney, this baby elephant is having probably the best day it's ever had! Because not only has it been eating poo, but it walked behind mom and mom just lifted its tail and decided to plunk a big fat ball of poo on its forehead! So, as you can see, there's a horrible big stain of poo meltdown forehead now! I'm sorry to call, and you need some toilet paper to clean that up! That doesn't look ideal at all!

Shame! Can you imagine having somebody drop poop on your head? What an ideal! I’m sorry! I’m laughing at you! I know it's not funny, but these things happen; don't worry! Well, we'll tell mom off for you! So, you can see they're right in front of the car at the moment! Shame, that one—it's a bad day! Like I say, I mean, not only do you have to eat somebody's pee, but when it gets shoved on top of your head as well, it's not very clever either!

And so it just goes to show, walking behind an elephant is never the safest place to be because, well, they just are uncontrollable in the way that they will lift their tail and deposit their dung! Yes, you are quite something! Should we stop talking about you? Hmm! It really has gone everywhere! Not only is it on its head, but it's also all over its front leg!

It's a shame! Poor thing! That's not a bad... not a good day! Now, look at this elephant on the Left! That's busy digging for a route! Also, mom has gone down and pushed her trunk! And look! You see! She's got the tuber! Did you see?! She dug it up completely! Now hopefully she's going to take it out of her mouth again! You can just see it in between, obviously, there would be a tree right away! We don't want it to be! Hopefully, she's gonna move a step forward and we’ll be able to see it!

But there's a massive tuber, and she used a tusk to dig it into the ground and then lift it up! That's how she exposed that tuber and took it into her mouth, which is very interesting because we've refined in a lot of these tubers lying on the ground from the Ellie. She's now got it between her trunk! Did you see that?! Absolutely amazing! She took her trunk and she twisted it, and then took her tusk and broke the roots and was able to actually expose the nutrients on the inside!

And she's still busy using the trunk as just a place to hold and to keep things nice and stationary while she feeds! But there's a bit of that tuber in the curve of her trunk currently! Little baby, don't walk there! You have you not learned your lesson? You're going to get poo on your other side of your head as well! Be careful! Well, lesson learned—do not walk behind an elephant!

And so while we contemplate that, let’s send you back across to James, who I'm sure will have something funny to say about being pooped on for this poor little lady!

I don't think that I have anything funny to say about being pooped on! I'm not sure being pooped on is particularly funny! Anything happens to somebody else, then it's utterly hilarious! And I've told you the story a few days ago, actually, about a girlfriend I once had who was covered in hard lead our dung after she gave them fright, and I thought it thoroughly deserving on her part! I used the term karma when she came home that evening! Wonderful day that was! One good day and years of bad ones!

Alrighty! We have a HP here! And obviously, it's a tree! You can see that, and I'm going to put it to you, viewers! What tree is this? It is a Virginia, obviously! So, you are not getting any points for getting the genus right! I'm asking you because I'm slightly confused as to the species! I think it's one of two, and I'm really not sure which I'm going to go for! So, Judy H, if you're watching, you can have a guess—Virgilia!

Oh! While you think about it, I'm going to extract a little bit of gum from it! Then you say it's a toothpick tree! Well, yes, I suppose! It might be to victory! They also apparently used to use these thorns for gramophone needles, if you can believe it! That is not the official botanical name, of course! Here is a little bit of amber for which these, what used to be called acacia trees, are famous! And it is this, of course, that all the bush babies are going for at the moment! So when we find them at night hopping between the trees, we know that this is what they're going for!

I'll eat some! It's not very good; it's got a kind of slightly no taste, bitter taste to it! There's another big lot over here, see? And this lot is being tended by ants now! I think it seeps this gum in order to attract ants because by having the ants here, of course, it will make—they will make a vague attempt to protect the tree from browsing predators like giraffes and impalas.

Paula, it is not an acacia anymore, and it's a Virgilia! Remember we're not allowed to call our phone trees acacias anymore! The Australians have taken that honor for themselves, which I think is a great leader satisfying! But anyway, this used to be an acacia, but it's not a knob thorn! No! You can see it's got very long thorns! I think it's one of two things! I'll show you one more thing in the tree before I give you my theories, because you are not giving me any of your theories, which is making various all in my heart!

Over here in the middle of the tree is what looks like a blue wax bill's nest! My only problem was saying what looks like a blue expose nest is that when I pull out this feather over here, most definitely not the feather of a blue wax bill! It looks like the feather of a night jar, perhaps! And I wonder if the blue wax bill that made this nest didn't find perhaps a carcass of a night jar and used the feathers to line the nest for its little babies?

If I was a little bird, I wouldn't mind being born in blue wax bill, because they have such a very comfortable nest! Because if you're born of Wahlberg's, a little something like that, well you lie on forms basically! You may as well be one of those people who lie on beds of nails!

Any guesses further, their faith about the specific name of this tree? Nothing? You've all given up? Okay, well, it is Sunday afternoon; I understand! I think that this is probably a Virgilia robusta! What is it? The splendid thorn? Or is it the red thorn? Virgilia Gerardi? The red thorn is normally given the name because it's got red ends to the twigs, but I don't see any bread ends really, and it's quite... it's got very long forms, so I think it probably is a splendid thorn! But it may well be a different variety from the one that we often see down on the river!

There we are! Thank you, Robust! That's exactly what I was looking for! For chillier robusta! Was that you googling, Faith, or was it a viewer? Emma Google, well done! Googling, you've done very well! I think it's a Virgilia robusta! They do come in a number of varieties out here! So that's what that is!

No, well, they sort of are acacia! And if I break a thorn off and try not to impale my finger on it, there are animals that, in fact, will sting the thorns! And that stinging causes that wood inside to form a spongy material, which I think is quite nutritious! But that's basically wood! That's basically cellulose! And cellulose is extremely difficult for any animal to digest unless it has got cellulase in its gut or bacteria to help it digest the cellulose!

And you know, I didn't think it's particularly nutritious at all! Just while I was talking there, if you look—oh! That's a laugh! Sit! You see there are a whole lot of cocktailed ants feeding on the gum! Meireles cocktailed because their tails are cocked! Fantastic! And we'll leave it at Virgilia robusta! I think Tristan's now heading sort of towards where we are—let's go and find out!

I have got one of the very much interesting tree here, and I want to show you something as this morning while I was out on a guided walk, there was a question about the elephant ring-barking the tree! So now I want to show you the consequences of elephants doing that!

So if you look at this tree, this whole area here, the back is not there! Let me go around this tree and just try and see how much bark is taken off! So I can see that is quite a very large piece of this tree! But this tree is one of the trees that has narrowly escaped death because when looking here, I can see that the skin is coming back! Because this area here was not touched by the elephants! It’s the one which is now surviving this whole tree! So look at how big this tree is!

And then the small part which is supporting this whole tree! But it is very difficult to tell if this tree is going to be able to survive! I can promise you now the amount of nutrients that are taken from the ground up by this—it will be survived, this whole tree! So the elephants—this is what they do mostly now during the season! If we can check the damage caused by the elephants during the dry season, it's not the same as the damage caused by the elephants during the summer season!

Summer season, the elephants, they feed from these branches, and the branches by summer season, they are very much nutritious! And the leaves—they have got quite a lot of nutrients! So during the dry season, the trees will take everything and withdraw everything back under the ground by the roots, and these elephants, because they have been here for quite a long time, they are adapting quite a lot of strategies to overcome the challenges with regards to the dry season!

And all they are doing now is digging and uprooting the trees and trying to get hold of those nutrients! So now by this season, elephants, they just caused quite a lot of damage! So now I will be moving towards the eastern side of the game reserve to see! I just want to go around the tree house now and see if maybe there's anything going there to drink, because when the Sun is very hot like these, the chances of animals going to drink, they are very much high!

So now I am heading towards the tree dam. Let's go to Tristan and see some of the elephants already—they are starting doing what I was talking about: ring-barking in the trees!

Well indeed, Sydney, they are stripping vegetation on masts, and I haven't been too destructive, I suppose, on trees just yet, but I suppose it's coming! As we get into more wooded areas, we'll start to see that the same destruction that Sydney was pointing out just now! But rarely it's been a beautiful sighting of these Ellies! They must be one of the most relaxed herds I've seen in quite some time!

They've been absolutely all around us! All the time and have not even blinked an eyelid as they've been moving around the vehicle! We've had little babies up close! We've had moms walking right in near us! And there's been no sign whatsoever of the herd even changing their behavior for one second!

So super relaxed! Must have spent a lot of time around vehicles out here in the Sabi Sands! You can see this female; she's about as round as she is tall at the moment! And I was just saying to Craig she reminds me a bit of a hot air balloon at the moment because she's got these little skinny legs that go down and then this massive, massive body that is very, very round at the moment!

So she's going to be giving birth, I would imagine, fairly soon! I don't think it'll be too much longer, and she'll be having her little one somewhere! Now it would be nice if we got to see it being born! That would be quite cool!

It’s very seldom that you're going to catch an elephant giving birth! Most of the time they give birth at night for some odd reason! I don't know why that is, but it's generally that way! Maybe it's to do with the fact that they can feel like they're more undercover and have a little bit more peace and quiet!

But I would think that giving birth at night would be a lot more dangerous with things like hyenas and lions and those sorts milling about! But maybe we will find that they are aware of the fact that predators are around, and the whole herd will help just to protect this female as she gives birth!

But very, very swollen tummy! Quite amazing how much it's protruding!

So Jake, yes, maybe Ellies will suck their trunks quite regularly! You'll find that they put it in their mouth and they suck it quite a lot! In fact, if you go to some of these elephants' rehabilitation areas, you'll find that if you put your hand there, they suck on your hand quite regularly! And they'll put their own trunks in and they'll suck each other's trunks a little bit!

So they do do a lot of that kind of thing! And why they do it, I'm not quite sure! Maybe it's very similar to how babies stimulate the same motion or same behavior of suckling!

I don't know, but it's an interesting behavior for sure! But how amazing is that now? Rickson has just got an art and mobile! And I need to just quickly give him an update because I think Sydney's still learning the ropes with the game driver idea!

Rick has a nice big herd of elephants just on the western side of final control! And then there's Hosana at Gary Dam! So here we go! I just gave Rick a little update quickly, and now he can then get his safari planned!

While we sit with our Ellies for a while longer, I'm thoroughly enjoying how relaxed this herd is! I spend most of our time, like I say, with him while it's still bright and sunny! And while we do that, let's send you back across to Sydney and Hosana!

I wonder if he's gotten any closer to those impalas!