Safari Live - Day 114 | National Geographic

And welcome to you from myself, Steve Falconbridge, joined by Fergus on camera. We are out in Toomer, in Sabi Sands, with degrees of 33 degrees Celsius and 89 degrees Fahrenheit. It is a nice warm day; the Sun is beating down. We have developed a bit of a sweat getting the vehicles ready, but we are excited and we are out on a mission.

I am joined out there by Scott Dyson; he's on vehicle, as well as Taylor. We're going to try and show you one of the best game drive safaris that we can. Please feel free to send through your questions at #SafariLive or hashtag Safari Live and follow us on that, the YouTube stream. Send us your comments or questions, and see how we can accommodate you this afternoon. I am going to go and try with Fergus and find that beautiful Tandi and her cub. It's been a while; I was watching the videos from this morning, and she has grown so much.

So, that is my mission this afternoon: to go and have a look and, obviously, whatever we find along the way. Scott has given me some rough directions, so we're going to see if we can manage to relocate on that beautiful animal. So please jump on board in the front row seat with us. Come and have a look, and while we go, we're going to jump over to Taylor, who's already found herself a Big Five animal.

I know, can you believe it? Starting off the sunset safari with my favorite animal! But there's one to the right that I want to show you that's even more exciting because it is having a little bit of a mud wallow. How cool is this? Of course, this elephant is way more important than me introducing ourselves, so we shall watch it for a little bit, and then I will say hello at some point.

Although you're really good at glimpsing my blond ponytail, for those of you that are just joining us for the first time on Safari Live, it's great to have you on board! Remember, you can chat to us; all you would do is hashtag Safari Live and then talk to us via the YouTube chat. But I'm Taylor, that's my name, and behind the camera bringing you all the most amazing things is Senzo.

We're going to be heading to chat, but our attention was drawn by the elephants. So that's what we're doing first this afternoon: watching them, and we're out on the boundary as well. We were lucky to catch them before they crossed over to an area that we may not venture. So thank you, elephant!

This is a young bull that we're looking at, just the two elephants so far. The rest of the herd could have crossed on Norri Tea, or perhaps it's just two members on this side. A little boy, a little bit cheeky, I don't blame him though; probably the heat. I also get a bit grumpy when I'm hot and sweaty, but he should be feeling much better now as he's glistening in the sunlight from all that love he met.

Pretty cool! Hi, guys! So, I don't know if it's mom and youngster, but you seem to be a bit too big to be a youngster. But their car just to the right of him looks like the memory glands are starting to swell. So perhaps that big bulge in his side is not from devouring today's grass and leaf buffet, but perhaps there is a young calf on its way.

Nice! Is this now, Sansa? When are we gonna see your favorite animal? When are we gonna see the lions today? Senseless as we're going to see lions today. Let's hope that he's right! That was quite a nice and a nice thing that that elephant did. I don't know if you saw it; it sort of grabbed a piece of grass and then, there we go, it's at some of the game wiped it on its body.

I don't know; perhaps the mud is like a salad dressing for the leaves! What's the matter then? And eat it? You know, Sam, I feel like you're issuing us all a challenge today by saying that this mud is nature's sunscreen. It is indeed. And if you do find yourself in need of some sunscreen and you can't find any, well, there we go—leather on the mud!

Although I don't know if I'd want to use the mud that that elephant has just used. Normally, it doesn't smell particularly nice, and I don't know what kind of parasites and things may be in there. But we've got a goal; we've got to get to Chitra, and I'm hoping that that massive body of water at Chitra—of course, Chitra Chattri Dan—is going to attract some more of these elephants.

But Steve has got the same idea today with the heat. He's going to be chasing after watering holes. Let's see where he has arrived. Thank you very much, Taylor! We have found ourselves at Chellah Pan, a very small watering hole on Twin Dams Road, coming south from camp.

We have found ourselves a couple of comb ducks, otherwise known as knob-billed ducks. They are letting the very characteristic big knob on the top of the beak that the male will have in the breeding season. So what I can assume is that possibly that’s a female with some juveniles, or there is a male that is not breeding at all. But the one on the left looks a little bit more dark brown than the one on the right.

But what a nice reflection that is! They are standing in a little bit of shade, enjoying some wind coming off the water. It just goes to show how a small pan like this, which was dry not so long ago, the nutrients washing in from the surrounding, will slowly start to see vegetation growing in this as the plants grow with the influx of nutrients.

And that is what these ducks are feeding on. They are also known as filter feeders, so they're able to filter small vegetation particles out of the water with their sort of filter-like beaks, which is quite unique for ducks. The only other bird species that we know of that can filter are flamingos, so it's really nice to see them.

It's my first sighting of some knob-billed ducks in the last one. Three-banded plover—Puma thinks, oh, very odd! Puma, you should see what the male looks like when he is breeding! He has got this very large disc shape on his beak. I would show you on my phone, but I think the screen is not going to reflect it very well.

But there they are; they're quite dab-looking at the moment. I'll actually try and get a picture for you, but they are quite interested in the Impala that just walked off. There were two male Impala enjoying the same shade as they were, and they are constantly looking in the direction.

See if I can find you a nice picture. Comb duck, I don't know why they're called comb ducks but knob-bill makes it very easy to call them comb ducks. It's the old name! Let's see if we can get this fig; let’s see if we can get the reflection on here. Look at the size of that knob on the top of the beak of the male! Apparently, that is extremely attractive to the females, which I find quite bizarre, but each to their own.

You can see sort of the flex—oh, sorry about my head! You can see the flex on the neck, which are quite characteristic for this duck with that sort of dirty whiteness to them. What's their calling? An alarm call of something on the floor here? So yes, they are quite strange ducks, but when they fly in profile, they've got such an amazing sort of shape because of that big comb or knob on the top there.

Okay, sir, Mr. Dyson is up and mobile, and he would like to say good afternoon! Good afternoon! Hello, everyone! My name's Scott; I'm teamed up with Devon. We're in the rush, we are looking for a leopard. His footprints were right behind us, very fresh, and we've heard some monkeys alarm calling. So we are hoping that sooner rather than later, we are going to be able to work out exactly where the slip it is.

Not too sure which male it could be—maybe Tumba, maybe Hukamuri, maybe Tingana. A lot going on with the male leopards here on Duma at the moment, and I'm hoping that these monkeys that we've heard alarm call a little bit earlier continue to do so. Steaming, and this was the area where the Hukumuri male was finishing off a kill yesterday.

Taylor's already put through her guess; she thinks it's gonna be Tumba, a young male, never good enough. Well, long enough chance to check those tracks properly. And like I said, there could have been Hukamuri's, but interestingly enough, Hukamuri male's got quite distinctive toes. Some of his toes are longer than the others, especially his back right foot; his back right foot's toes are considerably longer than that one, and that's abnormal. Rickson pointed that out to me the other day; Rickson is one of our wizard trackers where we spend time with on foot.

Hmm, okay, it's time to go off the road. I want to try and work out where these vervet monkeys are. They were chattering away and they're still around; they'll hopefully be up in a tree and looking in the direction of where that threat was. We can just stop here for a moment and enjoy these in-yala. Frances in Israel, you say it could be Hukamuri, and only time will tell. Hopefully, we will, in fact, be able to find out who it is, and then we will know who is correct: Taylor with Tumba or Frances in Israel with Hukamuri.

Now, an in-yala, quite a big antelope for a leopard to take down. How cool is this shot? The tangle of heads and horns— all different shapes and sizes! A great display, actually, small, medium, and large! Or medium, small, large, if you were to go in order and large, walk—medium, small, large, if you were to go in order.

Wonderful, as I say, they're quite big prey, but not too big for a male leopard. Too big for a female. Too big for a female! I've been really surprised by animals and their long hauls and how often it can vary with some in-yala bulls just like these ones we’re looking at now. That’s because flaring his nostrils quite effectively!

The leopard walked probably about 10 or 15 meters past him, and he didn't even let off one bark! Now, that is not very Austin! And he didn't even let off one bark! Now, that is not very good! If his girlfriends had seen him doing that, they would have been extremely disappointed! Be good if his girlfriends had seen him doing that; they would have been extremely disappointed!

What is this guy chewing? I'm wondering if he's chewing marula fruits. I think it could be; he's been going at it for quite a while. That’s if we can see in his beak there. Hey, buddy! Yours? That’s if we can see in his beak there. Hey, buddy! You’re also getting a bit flared nostrils there, showing off! Hmm, I wish I could twitch my ears like in-yala. That would be a nice party trick!

Giving a bit? Flaring nostrils there; showing off! Hmm, I wish I could twitch my ears like in-yala. That would be a nice party trick! Okay, guys, we gonna probably move on from these in-yala, keep snooping about, and try and find out where the vervet...