The 5 Musketeers Have an Impala Feast – Day 62 | Safari Live

This is the most mind-blowing wildlife experience you could ever hope to have. Hello, and look at that flat cat times two; they're so flat they almost merge into one! We're with the Five Musketeers here in the eastern sectors of the Maasai Mara Reserve in Kenya. This is coming to you a hundred percent live, and my name is Frank Leo Smith. I have Joey on camera, and, as I said, we've been with these cheetah for seven and a half hours today. They got us quite excited a little while ago. Jehova know, and busy sort of having a little bit of a nap, and then all of a sudden, there is some running and dashing, and all they did is run in - and flat, and go flat again.

So, we're hoping they are going to go moving again quite soon. The temperature has dropped rapidly; there's an absolute gale today, according to the weather people, which sometimes lies to you on the interwebs. In certain parts of the Mara, the wind is over 80 kilometers an hour today. I would say we're probably sitting at a good 45-40, 45 kilometers an hour winds. We've got our back to the wind, so hopefully it doesn't affect us too much. Now, if you want to ask any questions about said flat cats or any other magical things that are out here in the African bush, you can do so by using the hashtag #SafariLive. It'll be great to hear from you, and I'm pretty sure you can hear the wind now!

Unfortunately, Jamie's had a few gremlins, so she's got off a little late this afternoon, so you're stuck in the howling gale with Joey and myself. No, I mean, you look at the grass; it doesn't look that much, but remember the grass is so short there isn’t much of it to blow about. No, they differ. As I said, we’re on the sunrise; Friday doesn’t look like they ate last night or this morning, or if they did, it was something as meager as a scrub hare or a baby Thompson's gazelle.

Certain individuals are looking quite hungry, and I think with this cool, windy weather, they might get up and move a little bit earlier this afternoon. We played the patience game with them yesterday and this morning, and no luck; maybe third time's a charm. Well, I suppose we played the patience game with them all day today, to be honest, and yesterday, but it's the third drive I'm talking about. They do look quite comfortable. They marched away; they were sleeping in those crotons up ahead just behind them. That’s where they were this morning, so you can see they haven’t covered much distance at all.

You can see a bit of wind blowing through the crotons now. The wind in the Mara blows quite frequently. Ja, how has obviously spent a lot of time in the Mara over the last few years. Is there any month or season you find particularly more windy than others? It comes and goes; I think it's just a windy place. Yeah, especially you can see that with the very short grass, lack of big trees, and only small bushes. The big trees probably battle to get big in these areas, and then if we have a look where we do see the odd big tree, apart from the balanites, of course, and the trees that seem to be quite wind-resistant.

The other big tree is always in a slightly more protected area, just like that. I don't even see that hill in Tanzania in the background. Mia is wondering how would the wind affect the ability to hunt. Well, Mia, it actually wouldn't affect their ability to hunt at all; it would enhance their ability. That would be very good for them. What happens is that quite often, the animals won't even hear them, even when their feet are pounding as they hit that top speed. The animals won't hear them. Also, this wind is really strong, so their scent, if they're walking into the wind, is going to be quite well.

Now, of course, a lot of animals rely more on their eyesight to spot predators, but with this wind, it’s also gonna make... oh, there we go, it might affect them a little bit. It will make a lot of the animals very, very nervous when the wind is blowing like this. Animals don’t like this wind. Now, speaking of animals, there are no animals around us at the moment. Have a quick look! I've been checking constantly throughout the afternoon. We had some zebras run past that made them lift their head, but they looked a bit big, adult zebras. Nope, nothing off to the right or to the left. In the distance, maybe I see some creatures; they have some topi down in the valley there, but very, very far away, and big herds of wildebeest and zebra but on the other side of the valley far away down there, near the topi, and they are in there.

Hello, topis! Watch out; there are cheetahs about! And then on that far hill, you can see some little dots and stuff with all the beasts and zebra, so not much around. There are quite a lot of animals not too far over the ridges around us, but nothing close by at the moment. These are truly flat cats at this very moment. Oh, I think I’ve lost comms again. Did you get comms there, John? Ah, there we go. Well, it seems like Jamie’s got her gremlins sorted, so while we play the patience game with the five boys, let's send you back to the far western northwestern corner of the Maasai Mara to see what’s happening in the Triangle.

A very good afternoon to all of you, and welcome to the Mara Triangle portion of this Sunset Safari. Starting off in a very, very windy afternoon, the wind is howling. It's blowing dust everywhere. My name is Jamie, and this afternoon, Craig is on camera with me. We’ve just been debating whether or not what we're seeing on the horizon is rain or haze. Because it is so windy, I think it's a little bit too thick. I think this wind might be blowing in some kind of front, but we can't even see towards the mountains in Tanzania. And as we're driving along, the wind keeps gusting the dust back towards us.

So the plan for the afternoon is to, well, be slightly more successful than we were this morning. I couldn't find anything this morning except elephants, which I'm never going to complain about. The base of our mountain is always a good place to start; though we’ve got a parlor, we’ve got zebra, and usually the odds of a boon or two, a couple of warthogs. Let's see what we can find. I also want to try and figure out why that zebra is making such a noise. I'm sad that the eland family isn't here today. There is a massive herd of about thirty odd alerts that live around here! Unexpected, so it's not just general game animals today; there’s mischief next to the road. See how relaxed it is?

No, no no! Panic! Don’t panic! Don’t panic! It’s very good to me. About the fluffiness, yesterday was... was it yesterday? Tristan and I were talking about a scale of fluffiness. One of the viewers actually suggested... what have you guys actually suggested? The depth that your hand would sink into the fur of the animal as an appropriate unit of measurement.

And the reason we were talking about it is because the hyenas here in Kenya are that much fluffier than the one. So, we got you scared of zebra that had nothing to do with us and everything to do with the zebra. This hippo in this area doesn’t take nonsense from hyenas, and that’s because the hyenas here hunt them. They have the advantage of numbers, and so if the zebra finds themselves staring down an individual, excuse me, they will chase them. David, it’s a tricky one. You wanted to know if there are animals that change their behavior when rain is coming. Certainly. I think that all animals are aware of the rain far sooner than we are when rain is on its way.

There are certain birds that will call when the rain is coming, something like a cuckoo, for example. When they pick up changes in pressure, let me just move out of the way of this vehicle, sorry. They pick up on changes in pressure and then an increase in moisture in the air. You'll see swallows swooping about. It's mostly birds, frogs might start to call a little bit more frequently. Hi, guys, how are you? Good! Hi, we are at WWF. What are we talking about? Animals changing behavior due to the rain? But what you'll find, the biggest behavioral change is the wind, and I think Brent's already explained to you why wind would be such an advantage to a predator, and that causes a change of behavior in the animals that they would hunt as well.

They become more nervous, they become more jumpy, more alert. Our app time I put myself into the worst possible position. No, okay, we’ve got some at the back. There as well, enough time for tiny topis. Another thing animals will often do in winds like this is they will lie down, and that just increases the surface area that’s exposed to the wind. But if you look, look at that. It’s not incredible; the topis are already growing their horns! It seems like just the other day they were taking their first tottering footsteps, tiny and very vulnerable looking.

Now already, how long has that taken? A month? A month and a half? Not even! Already the tiny topis are growing horns. Here we go, can see them at the back; that’s phenomenal! Oh, the wind! You feel the whole car rocking as the wind blows. Now, in situations like this, the animals will actually try and move to open areas. This is a perfect spot for them because the grass is still quite short, and that means that although their sense of hearing and their sense of smell is compromised, at least they can see potential threats: lion, for example, a leopard or cheetah; all of those things they’ll spot coming. That’s why you’ll find even in South Africa a lot of the animals will crowd together in an open area like quarantine.

As we try to forge our way forward without being blown away, let's go find out where Brent's managed to stay in one place and is well sheltered from the wind. Well, we are in the exact same place as the wind is still buffeting down, and I'm hoping that the boys are going to take advantage of this windy afternoon to try and do some hunting. But at the moment, oh, we got a little bit of movement, a little bit of movement to head up. Two on the right, a bit of a rollover, a little bit to the right there; what are you two up to? That's better, that’s better! I like that movement more, and there are possibilities!

Although they’re still looking quite relaxed, one must remember that sometimes with big cats, getting up is a gradual process, or sometimes it’s an instantaneous process. You never can be quite sure which one you’re going to encounter. Oh, look at them! They do seem to be enjoying the cool windy weather, more than we are. Lynn’s wondering how close to prey do they need to be for the cheetah to get active? Oh, Lynn, that is a very good question, but again it's one of those questions where there is no finite answer.

It all depends on what prey species, how hungry they are, and the size of the prey. I suppose that goes down to simple, but what species? Again, but all those times different sort of variables play a massive part in whether the cheetah will get up and start running. If something in the right sort of size range jogged right up to them, now there we get up very, very quickly, almost instantaneously. There would be up and at it, and as you can see at the moment, they’re the opposite of a pen asset.

While we were waiting for them to do something, you managed to do a bit of birding, and unfortunately, I don’t think that is going to be the case today because this wind has kept all those little grassland birds—the puppets, larks, wheat ears that we saw yesterday—well and truly sort of bunkered down for the moment. You never know. The wind might lay off in a little bit, but I don’t think it's going to. I think we probably stuck with this wind for the rest of the safari, and as I say, it's not a bad thing.

Now as I said, we’re probably not going to see any birds; maybe Jamie can provide some, and it seems like she already has. I have actually! I mean, as Brent said, birding is difficult in this weather, but sometimes there are other factors that mitigate its effects. This is a nice example of the difference between South Africa and the Masai Mara, or at least the low felt, and the low felt you’ll see waffled starlings.

What do these birds are, you’ll see waffled starlings around the animals, but you won’t often see them sitting on the backs of the animals. Just before and while you were still with Brent, the waffled starling was sitting on the back of the zebra, picking off ticks and parasites. So we’re used to seeing oxpeckers doing that, but it’s not often that we see the wattle starlings hitching a ride on the various animals in the way that we do in the Mara. Of course, it's very common to see birds moving about where there are big mammals, and that's because as they move about feeding, they disturb insects that the starlings will then run forward and grab.

So what we have is the female in front and a male at the back. Straw had, you say such cool-looking birds, it's easy to see where they get... oh, I'm sorry, I think we’ve actually got two males. It’s easy to see where they get their name, Wattle Starling from. If you have a look at the bird on the left, there you go! A very, very well-developed wattle display. Purpose, it's much, much larger in the male than in the female, which immediately tells you what it’s used for.

You know we’ve definitely got females and one male in terms of a reproductive advantage display purposes. Look at me, I’ve got the biggest wattle of all! So I actually didn’t stop for the wattle starling, so I’m glad that I did. I stopped because there’s an image so beguiling that I just had to show it to you. Of course, as I say that, it decides to relieve itself, but here's two very beguiling little creatures, and it allows us to continue our train of thought on the fluffy meter, the fluff-o-meter! Tiny, tiny little baby zebras, still a little bit unsteady on their feet. When I left, this entire area was filled with pregnant females, and now everywhere I look, there’s a spindly-legged baby zebra.

There’s one off to the right that’s just about to go and have a drink from mom. Pale in color when you compare it to the adults, the stripes are sort of brownish, and I think probably falls into the same place and the fluff-o-meter scale as the hyena, if not even fluffier. I’m always surprised at just how large baby zebras are, even when they're very, very young, and that, of course, makes sense because they have to have long legs to keep up with the zebra. Our kisra fox while we watch the little baby zebra—yes, absolutely, the birds were using—they were using the zebra to flush out insects in the grass, something that a fork-tailed drongo often does back in South Africa.

You’ll see the drongos swooping in and out around buffaloes, and I’ll take you to see the larger flocks of wattle starlings in a second, but not yet. Baby zebra are just too cute! Well, Jake is on the same page as I am. LJ cases that they watch baby zebra all day long. They are just so utterly adorable! There’s something... I don’t know. I think so innocent-looking about a baby zebra. Is it the eyes or the face? Perhaps it's just that they have a tendency not to be quite as angry and aggressive as the adults. Generally speaking, zebras are quite short-tempered, quite angry animals, at least with each other.

They have very, very little patience. Look at its face; that's too sweet. It's a nice thing about this time of year in the Mara; there are babies everywhere! And then by the time February rolls around, we've got the wildebeest birthing season to look forward to. While most of them have gone back towards Tanzania, the number of them have stayed behind. The Leutze herds have stayed behind and are on the other side of the river, so we've got baby wildebeest to look forward to as well!

I think it's nap time now that you’ve had your lunch or afternoon tea, I guess it would be. Rama, do you want to know where all the wildebeest are? Most of them, as I said, have gone back into Tanzania. They went trotting off across the Sand River, the last final stragglers probably about a month ago, possibly even a little bit longer. So the Valda beasts have gone, but they were still around about... I think the numbers are around between thirty and fifty thousand never leave! They remain permanently based here, so there are about three of them behind me that I drove past.

Unfortunately, Craig won't be able to film them; it was quite a while ago, but there are about thirty or so thousand, fifteen odd thousand wildebeest on the other side of the river now. Typically, the Loiter herd does its own migration back towards the Loiter hills. Unfortunately, one of the realities of life is such that that migrational pattern has been changed and has been changed by the presence of fences. So chances are most of the Loiter herd is going to stay in that area, and we'll see them throughout the year as it apparently has become a pretty standard thing over the past two or so years. Sad, very, very sad. The fences, of course, were one of the things that completely ended the massive springbok migration that used to happen within South Africa. Larger even than the great migration that occurs here, millions of springbok used to move across the country.

But with the increase in population, with the increase in said colonial settlements and fences going up, that migration was completely finished. It's not something that's going to happen here because the main route that they follow will forever remain... I hope forever without fences. So we spoke about the wattle starlings to move on to happier times. We spoke about the wattle starlings following the zebra, and they are! But let me see if I can get us to where they're flocking around the buffalo because it's only one or two stragglers that are spending time with the zebra. Most of them are around this herd of buffalo that's up ahead of us by vice TP zebra little falls, so cute!

Okay, well, I'll make an attempt to see where the flock of starlings has gone. Let's send you back over to Brent and his cats, who are feeling very sleepy, very sleepy even. Oh, one's got its head up now, so I'm hoping there is possibly some movement shortly. The more they sort of start rolling around and maybe even having a little bit of a play and grooming is what we're looking for! It means they’re probably gonna start, hopefully start getting up, but as you all know, we are 100% live from the African bush! So you never know what could happen next!

You can hear some... we can’t even see them, and I can hear some vulture overhead being swept away by the wind, but as if the wind is not necessarily a bad thing for the cheetah, in terms of their hunting, it could very much aid them this afternoon. Oh, here we go, here’s a bit of a yawn! See those are all very good signs that hopefully in the not too distant future the boys are going to decide to be a little bit more entertaining than they've been all day! Now, I'm not complaining about spending a Sunday basically emulating the cats, but on the vehicle next to them, but it would be nice after maybe probably eight hours or so now to get a bit of movement!

Now it's interesting to see which direction they go. We know where they came from, so where they're going to go next. David, how often do cheetah need to eat? Now again, it's a very dependent question depending on what they've caught, how big it is, whether they lost their carcass to another predator. So cheetah on average use about 50% of all the kills they make to lions or hyenas or even leopards in some cases. But if they catch a nice big sub-adult wildebeest or bigger, no, they probably won’t have to eat for a day or two, but if they catch a baby Thomson's gazelle, they're probably gonna have to eat again today. It all depends!

Is that rain? Was that just the wind? It’s raining! Oh dear, oh dear, that’s not good! It’s still just spitting at the moment, coming from behind us, and I’m not feeling it in the car; I can just hear it on the roof. But it does look like the boys are getting ready to get up, so let’s just have a quick look. There we go! Lovely stretch! Watch what they do now— a little bit of rain is also not a bad thing for them if they are off hunting!

There you go, a little bit of grooming as we were talking about! All good signs that it might be time to get up and get busy! Only d’Artagnan has got his head flat to the ground at the moment. Okay, well, we're gonna stick with the cheetah and keep a close eye on what the rain is doing— whether we need to deploy the tent—but while we do that, it seems like Jamie has found the buffalo with the birds!

Well, I guess it was raining alas! I think that sort of answers our question as to what's to the south and to the east of us. So we found the birds, but they’re playing hard to get! Obviously, the buffalo are pretty clear to see. We’ve got an entire herd sitting here enjoying some time resting and ruminating.

Oh, there we go, Craig, there they are! They’ve got back to their tree! There’s this massive flock of wattle starlings, and it keeps splitting up and then coming back together again. I think most of them stayed in that tree. Again, quick over to Brent! Oh yeah, as the cheetah got up, the gremlins attacked Brent and now he’s vanished off your screens! That's okay, I’m still here and trying to find you the stock of birds, although I'm right at the point of giving up now and moving on blind.

Buffalo, don’t be shy! It’s okay! This buffalo is blind in its left eye, probably due to some kind of traumatic injury. It’s completely covered by a cataract! Of course, now that I'm trying to point that out, it has decided to... there we go! You can see I’m almost certain that would be complete blindness in that eye, but one eye... common! One-eyed animals are not that uncommon!

Okay, Brent has found signal. Off you go! Or not? Hey! In theory, it's a lovely idea! But unfortunately, in practice, it seems as though Brent’s signal is just not quite stable enough. Hopefully, those cheetah lead him somewhere where he can actually show you what's happening! I'm gonna move on, though. I'm going to leave our buffalo herd. We'll probably come back here. I wish I could figure out where the Ngala buffalos went because if we could do that, we could determine whether or not we should come back here towards the evening.

Listen, I've driven all around there, and there were no animals when I drove there this morning, which means if the Angles are hungry... if they’re not on a kill now, again I have to move up in this direction. I can see two cars up ahead of me that haven’t moved in a while. That would be pushing it for the N’Garba’s. It would put them right up close to the territory of the Marsh Breakaway females. Let’s go and find out! I think I'm going to stick close to home with this weather moving about, but windy weather is a good hunting time!

Good hunting potential! For those of you that missed the sunrise safari, speaking of hunting but saw yesterday’s sunset safari, so if you missed the sunrise but saw the sunset, I went straight back to where the leopard had the giraffe kill. All that's left is a slightly mangled leg in the tree.

The rest of the kill he appears to have dropped down, and I think the hyenas have dragged it away, and there was no sign of him. I don’t think he went far, but the grass is long, there are lots of small bushes for him to hide under, and we tried this morning, but we just didn’t have any success! Quick over to Brent again! Standing by and delivering action!

So you guys, we’ve got... they just disappeared through the kids, and they’ve caught a tiny baby impala! This is not for sensitive viewers! We couldn’t get to the hand! We were actually came through the thickets—they were ramming into the thickets when they saw this tiny baby impala! So fortunately, with so many of them, it's going to be gone very quickly, and I'm not gonna suffer at all! I mean, you can see it's so small that you can't even see the impala! d’Artagnan, he's late to the feast!

As I said, this windy weather will often benefit them. I don’t think the impala or the other animals heard them as they started charging through the bush. We can hear them fighting, so you can actually hear some of those strange noises cheetahs make, and sad that it’s not gonna last very long. It's gonna be gone in two seconds, if it's not almost already all gone!

I'd say it's a couple of days old, so a lot of the bones will be very, very soft. They're gonna be able to chew through most of them! You can see every now and then you’ll just catch a glimpse; you can see how small the little ribs are, and that tells you how young the impala was. And you can see how even cheetah, with their non-powerful jaws, are working through the rib bones very easy. It might be one or two bigger vertebrae they might struggle with, but I think probably not on an impala that size!

You can see one always pops at a nap, making sure that there’s no potential threats close by because even with this wind, hyenas’ sense of hearing is so good, and that baby impala did bleat a little bit. If there was a hyena close, very close to here, then it definitely would have reacted! And I'm keeping a close look at, but even if the hyenas did arrive now, I don’t think there'd be much for them!

The lapwings have arrived! We had them alarm calling at the cheetah. James Richarson says once these boys get moving, they sure gets things done quickly! Isn’t that the truth? That was a split second from when they were sort of lying about, a bit of grooming, and all of a sudden, one just took off through the Croton thickets!

They say it should be quick sticks to finish this! Probably just a little bit of skin left now! Still keeping a lookout! George is saying surprised they’re not fighting more over such a small meal! Well, at the moment there we go! As much as soon as it gets less, then there will be a little bit more fighting! So d’Artagnan has got off with the biggest piece, even though he was the last to arrive and didn’t actually make the kill at all!

And as I say that, an impala of that size is not going to provide very much food at all for these five boys! I'm just gonna move back a little bit so you can see, oh, and see if I make an attempt to take the kill back! Thought about it! So, make sure there are no cars behind this—yeah, we never know! Here we go!

How’s that future? So there’s a little bit of a battle going on over the pelvis, by the looks of things, and with the other two there, one’s got its grips on it now! That might be their only bone—the top pelvis and the thighs might be a bit too big! Since some of the vertebrae might be too big for them to crunch up!

It's incredible how fast, and if the wind—you can see it playing, and if the flowers around, they were like lightning! Adrian's wondering, are they not afraid of being attacked by bigger predators? Very, Adrian! Well look, here we go; are we gonna get a little bit of a playful from d’Artagnan? Maybe not!

So yes, they are very much so, Adrian! That's why there aren’t quite... quite alert on a small carcass like this! They'll try to eat as much as possible as quickly as possible when a larger predator makes an appearance and can disappear with it! So on average, as I say, they lose about 50% of all their kills to larger predators! This wind definitely worked in their favor this afternoon, making short work in UNC, finishing off!

So they've managed to mash up a lot of the pelvis, they're now down onto the little legs. Andrea's commenting on that wind; it is! It’s particularly strong! It's actually probably dropped off a little bit in the last half an hour compared to what it was. I said during the middle of the day was when it was at its worst! It was really, really strong!

And the boys were just hunkered down in the thickets here! Yep, I'll clean you if you clean me! The bonds in coalitions, whether they be cheetah or lion, are always very important! So even though they were scrapping over the scraps of the meal, a little bit of grooming and cleaning each other is very important, especially after those little scraps to reaffirm the bonds between the coalition members!

You gotta fight from a tail! Oh, here we go! Speaking of Jonathan's, wondering what determines when or how... what would cause the Musketeers to possibly split up.

It'll be a dominance play between the different cheetahs! So they’re still quite young, and when they start breeding, that’s what it'll be! Whether they're going to stick together or not, whether one or two or maybe three of them are happy with her being the dominating and doing most of the breeding, or they’re not happy with that situation and they might split up!

Then, of course, the more common reason for cheetah coalitions to become fewer in number is lions! Lions are the greatest threat to cheetah out here on a day-to-day basis! Here we go; here’s the fighting custody, wondering is one of the cheetahs wearing a collar? Yes, it is! That is d’Artagnan, and he’s been collared by the Mara Cheetah Project, and he’s part of an ongoing research program on dispersal male cheetah!

Hey boys, well done! That didn’t last long! China says I’m pretty sure they're gonna hunt again once they've finished off the last of this baby impala! Probably hoped for something a bit bigger! You can see how quickly it’s taken them to almost completely eat every single scrap! Disturb bit of skin left!

Whoa, nearly blew my hat off until ago! You can see not much left at all! Getting a mouth full of fur! There, as I was talking about the bonds between coalitions being very important, the affection you see between the different individuals is very important in maintaining a strong coalition!

As soon as there’s less affection, it'll probably mean that the coalition is likely to split! And they say it's going to be very difficult to see until they start competing for mating rights whether they will stay together or whether they will split! As it didn't take them long to scoff that ad wall! Still, no sign of hyenas or vultures, especially with this wind; I think everyone’s going to struggle a little bit!

Even the vultures might struggle to fly! They might get above it there! So there we go; you can see that very important ritual cleaning! It’s cleaning the blood off each other, but it’s also reaffirming those bonds! Because they might have given each other a smack while feeding or a smell or a bite, so it’s very important for that, that the cheetah are to reestablish, or reaffirm those coalition bonds!

Go bears, remembering other coalition boys bigger in size than a single male cheetah? I would not say so at all! Today they’re pretty good size; actually, some of them are quite small compared to some of the male cheetah I’ve seen in the Mario! But they are so young, and they’re still filling out, but I wouldn’t say they’re any bigger than a cheetah that was by itself or a coalition of two male cheetah!

Now Brent is wondering what is a king cheetah? A king cheetah is a color morphing into a genetic mutation in terms of where the spots fusing become stripes! And it is only in southern Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, the only place king cheetah have ever been recorded! And the last one in the wild was in the 70s, so a long time ago!

So it's like leucism; leucism is a lack of pigment; it's a production of a mutation, but not full melanism, which would make a black cheetah! It’s just a produced amendment, and the spots are fused into stripes! This wind is horrible! But good if you're a hunting cheetah!

Matt's wondering will the Cheetah Hunt again right away, or will they wait a while? They’ll do a bit of grooming, but I think they will get up and move, not necessarily a hunt, but they're on the move, so it is possible! And they’ll hunt again almost immediately, or they could wait a while, and I’ve seen them do both! So it all just depends!

Shelly says that their head— their food so fast— is that going to make them sleepy? Well, they’ve got very high metabolisms, and that wasn’t a lot of food, and they can eat a lot more than that very quickly! So they might have a little rest, but I still think they will be moving on in not too long now!

Ah, there you go, d’Artagnan! Still got a few little snippets, but other than that, it's all done! Pod cat mama would like to know, is there an average amount the cheetah will hunt per day? No, it is again one of those questions that is completely dependent on the circumstance, so there’s no average!

If they catch a big wildabeast, they won’t hunt for two days, but if they catch a baby impala like this, they might hunt five baby impala; baby Thomson's gazelle in a day, so there's no set average on how often the cheetah will hunt in a day! I’m just gonna stick with this, see if they do get on the move and on the hunt again! While we do that, Jamie's still searching for big cats at home!

Well, I haven’t found a big cat but from one endangered species to another, most definitely not a big cat, but quite a big... there we go! What a lovely surprise! I saw some vehicles earlier on looking all gathered together in this particular spot, and I was wondering if maybe they'd found the line, but this is just as good!

A pair of black rhinos, one of whom is enjoying a Sunday afternoon snooze! It looks as though the two of them have spent the day at the spa! In fact, that one has got mud almost over its entire body! You missed a spot, my friend, just right at the top, so you’ll never see a rhino rolling right over onto its back! Hence why the top of the shoulders doesn’t have any mud on it, but the rest of it does!

Rhinos love a mud wallow, and it has been hot today, even though it is windy! So a really good opportunity for us to have a look at, well, a couple of different features of the black rhinoceros and what makes it different from the white rhinoceros.

First of all, the shape of the head, the way that the head is held, because we call in black rhinoceros technically the hook-lipped rhinoceros, and you can see why! With that hook lip, rather than the wide lip of the white rhinoceros, and they use that to break off branches. It's quite a prehensile lip.

Branches, leaves, anything like that will form part of its diet as opposed to the grass of the other species. Now, I was a bit worried when I first drove up because often wind can, in particular with rhinos, make them rather unsettled! Makes total sense as to why— they’re very, very short-sighted. Their eyesight is terrible to say the least! They pick up on movement but only at around about 50 yards!

And usually their responses are to try and investigate it and try and smell it rather than to actually try and see because they just can't. The carps' eyesight is a bit better than the adults, but the adults have a very keen sense of smell and a very keen sense of hearing! Now at the moment, our smell's been blown away from them, so they know that something's here!

And the one on the left is particularly alert; they know that something's here, and they’re probably aware that it's vehicles because they can probably hear the sound of the engines and people talking! But it does—the wind has made their lives more difficult! I love the fact that we can share Rhino with you!

Electric floss, did I hear that? Rog, electric floss? Electric floss? A rhino will typically in the wild... Hi, how are you? Good, thanks! It has been a long time! Yes, sorry about this, sloth! Electric floss! Sorry, where are the lines? I don’t know! You tell me? No, I mean either!

Okay, Geese man, it’s good to see you again! Hi, guys, apologies! Electric floss! Electric sloth: is that it? Is it electric sloth? Right, I’m sorry; it's terrible! Just see one of the other guides that I've gotten to know recently over the past few weeks, and I haven’t seen him in a while because I've been uneven! He's obviously been on leave!

Right, electric sloth got it! Finally apologized! And, a rhino will typically live between 30 and 40 years, up to 40 years in the wild! So they’re long-lived animals, and that applies to male and female as well! 30 to 40 odd years—it's a long time! And how long they should live, at any rate!

Another thing about a black rhino just while it turns its head— and I'm not sure whether we've got a male or a female here! I'm inclined to say it's a female, but it's difficult to judge with size. Because of course, a female can live for 40 years! I have seen females rhino that are just as large as their male counterparts!

It's more tricky, but as she presents, she presents its profile. It's another thing about black rhinos; you'll find particularly in older animals is that the secondary horn, so the one that is behind the shorter one, will often grow almost as long as the front horn. At times, they even look as though they’re going to touch as they grow!

Now for new viewers, this is a very important fact to talk about— a rhino horn is made of keratin! It is the same substance essentially, obviously, different, different ways that it's structured and laid out! But essentially, it is the same substance as your hair and as your fingernails, which is what makes it so tragic that it's used medicinally!

Because there is absolutely zero medicinal value in a rhino horn—you might as well go eat a bowl full of your own hair, perhaps clipping from clippings from a beard or chew your own fingernails! Doesn't sound very appetizing, does it? But the sad reality is that there is a belief that it helps with all sorts of things: from hangovers to colds to cancer, to other human conditions. Prodcut mama only in the beginning, so proud cat mom is wondering... I promised you I'd find a picture of the rhino growth, and I completely forgot!

I've got it somewhere! The horn can only be used in determining age when the rhino is still young! And it is used in combination with the size of the rhino next to its mother! Once they reach around about the age of, let's say, hmm, 8 or 9, even up to 10, after that, it becomes more tricky to tell whether or not, or to gauge the rhinos age! The best way to do it, of course, is the condition of their teeth, but again, as I always say when I talk about that, you have to get a rhino to open wide!

And they generally don’t do that! So once they’ve reached that age, the horn grows continuously! That’s one of the reasons that’s put forward in terms of dehorning rhinos, and why they have to... if you do dehorn them, you have to dehorn them every five or so years! But they rub their horns down at the horn, continues to grow! So you can’t really utilize it!

But I mentioned that the secondary horn often in older individuals grows up to the size of the first! That will give you a little bit of an idea, but it's not accurate! And just like human beings, you know how some people’s hair grows very, very quickly, some people’s fingernails grow quickly, some people's fingernails grow slowly! It'll be the same with rhino! And that horn used for defense and for males used for backing off other males.

I think this is a female and a calf! That one and the one that's lying down to me looks quite small, probably around the region of three years old! If she hasn't had another baby by now, then that would be the right age! She's got an oxpecker friend. Oh no, she doesn’t anymore! She had an oxpecker!

My world, your world, music... none, which is very sad! So while our affectionate female rhino stands guard over a calf, which I'm almost a hundred percent certain is the Senora we have here! Let's go across to a bonding session between the Musketeers!

There we go, you can see lots of bonding going on! A tiny little patch of skin on the ground is all that's left, and obviously, I’m sure you can hear the gale force wind that is really... it seems to have gotten stronger again. The boys don’t seem to mind! Remember, this is a hundred percent live coming to you from the Maasai Mara in Kenya! We’re with the largest known coalition of male cheetah—five boys together! They’ve recently, if you just joined us, killed a young impala! But that's not going to suffice for these boys!

The hunger is there, they're concave bellies... they’re gonna be up and on the move again, looking for some more potential prey! But first, it’s time to just lie on a termite mound, because that's what you do when you're a cheetah! As I said, I don’t think it’ll be too long before they’re up and on the move again!

They’ve got incredibly fast metabolisms, so they digest whatever they kill very, very quickly! And something like that more that's more shared between four of them is not even going to touch sides! One of them’s sporting a little bit of a limp! Virginia likes so much! One of the boys is the oldest! I'm not sure; it's almost impossible to tell at this age! Sorry, the wind is about to take me away!

It's impossible to decide, and if you can hear me over there, then I'm gonna dry up on my head down so you can hear me over this wind! It’s impossible to tell which of the boys is the oldest, and they’re all roughly around the same age—just about two, also two, two and a half, I’d guess! I might be wrong, if I remember correctly! That's how all their—here’s the one who’s got a little bit of a limp!

Nothing serious, and as I said, I think there will be on the move in shortly! But I think they might have a little snooze beforehand! All coming to join now; all five will be on the same termite mound shortly! You can see some wildebeests in the distance, but I’m not sure they’re gonna head that direction!

Right on the opposite valley there! So lady lair would like to know when is the cheetah mating season? Well, like all big cats and domestic cats and dogs, there is no set of mating season! They’re made throughout the year, and only at when the female comes into estrus, and that is when they will mate!

Oh, wind! Go away! I can’t even think with this wind pounding through! Yeah, so it is! You see how they're cleaning their feet now? And they will do a bit of grooming while they get rid of the blood that’s left over from that baby impala! Probably because it tastes quite nice as well!

Now, very, very cleanly cats! Well, not really! You know, quite smelly, and they’ll be full of parasites and fleas and ticks! But as far as wild animals go, they do tend to like to keep themselves quite neat and tidy! Oh windy windy windy! I still wonder if they’re gonna head in the same direction they were heading when they started moving or are they gonna change their direction completely and head towards those wildebeests in the distance?

I don’t know! I think they're probably gonna head further to the west again! Now, how do you? Would like to know how large is this cheetah’s home range? Well, they actually have a territory, being males, and their territory will have a core area and a less cool area! The male cheetah can have a territory of up to 30 plus thousand hectares—over 60,000 acres!

But their core range within that will probably be about half! Now, it also all depends on whereabouts in Africa you are! So for example, these cheetahs have a much smaller territory than a cheetah that lives in the desert in Namibia would have because of prey abundance! See, as there's a lot of prey, they don’t need a lot of territory!

Now, female cheetah have home ranges that overlap with other female cheetah, and they can be much bigger than the males! And so what males try to do is form the core part of their territory around an area where multiple female home ranges overlap. Because otherwise, they would never, ever find a girlfriend! Heads are still all up! Nearly all clean, not quite, but nearly!

Now even with this howling gale, the vultures managed to spot the cheetahs! I'm not sure from where, but they're waiting quite patiently beyond the other side, while the boys are napping! The vultures are waiting for them to move away from the remnants of that carcass! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight—I don't think there’s enough food left for eight vultures, but they will try!

Yeah, I'm gonna try reposition a little bit so this wind isn't blowing me away! But while we do that, let’s go across to Jamie and Jafar! Ooh, there we go! Our little one is up and following along behind mom! So we—well, I was correct; it was a female and a calf.

It looked like it was a little one at the back, so two and a half-ish maybe? Yeah, two and a half-ish! Little spray of urine there! I think it might be a boy! It's hard to tell because, of course, they don't spray their urine properly until they reach sexual maturity, in which case their urine sprays backwards! It might also just be in the wind!

So, there goes mom! Hello! We’re talking about rhinos and white rhinos in the Mara! Remember that it would have been a different subspecies as well that would have been found in this area—the northern white rhino! And of course, unfortunately, although not extinct yet, the northern white rhino has reached the point of extinction!

The last remaining wild male white rhino, his name is Sudan, and he lives in Kenya—not in the Mara though! So unfortunately, if white rhinos are reintroduced back into this area, it will have to be southern white rhinos because Sudan has reached the point where he is essentially past breeding age!

Finding him a female, even from a zoo, while it has been done, has not proved to be successful in the birth of a northern white rhino calf! Hey, look at the typical head-up approach! I’m gonna do a quick—I’m just gonna wait for this vehicle to come past me, and then I’ll turn around! Laura, wouldn’t it be easier to tattoo the rhinos' ears instead of cutting them?

No, I’ll give you one very clear reason why that would not be a better idea! First of all, tattooing could actually take a fair amount of time, which the longer a rhino is under anesthetic, the more dangerous it becomes! Rhinos do die—a lot of animals—there’s always a potential risk, just like with human beings, of general anesthesia! So that’s one of the problems—the second problem is the big one! Remember, we said this rhino is covered in mud!

Now if it were to have a good spa day, that spa day would reach it all the way; it would be covered in mud from the tips of its toes to the tips of its ears, and the tattoo would be covered up completely! And that, of course, would make things very difficult! Whereas notches stand out very clearly! So it's done quickly, they're immediately given antibiotics as soon as they've done it—a long-acting antibiotic, Jambo!

A long-acting antibiotic as well as some antibiotic spray, and they go on their way! Probably, yes, with a slightly sore ear, but it heals quickly and they often do it to themselves! And then you have to add it to their identity kit! They often repose in their ears to retreating bottoms! What a lovely sighting they’ve given us—mom and little one! Let’s see if I can see what little one is! Oh, Stark! I think it’s a boy! I think it’s a male!

Yep, it's a male! The young male calf! So tricky to tell, like with elephants! The testicles of the rhino—the male rhino, obviously—are internal, so it's not always obvious! So easy, not spectacular! The whole car's rocking as the wind blows! I’ve got my head ducked down, almost in the footwell, so that you can hear me over the wind!

As we say goodbye to our rhino and I duck below and seek shelter, I think that Brent is experiencing something very similar on the other side of the river! Well, we're trying to keep ourselves out of the wind and still keep a close eye on the Musketeers, but they’re still on top of that termite mound, heads are still up!

That’s always a good thing! After a little afternoon tea snack, they’re having a little rest before they head off on the move again! I'm pretty sure they're gonna move! Oh, there we go, come on, guys! Are you gonna get everyone going? Oh no, we’re just going to do some kisses! So, some more grooming between the different individuals, isn’t that gorgeous?

There's a little bit of rain about! Often, all this wind decided to creep back in again! I thought we had managed to position our backside towards the majority of the wind, but it keeps swirling! Yeah, we've been lucky enough to spend the whole day with these boys, even with this incredible howling gale! It has been quite a pleasant day, and you can see a big cold front being blown in by this gale!

I had a look at a map earlier that shows you the wind and whatnot, and you could just see these green streaks of wind throughout the whole of East Africa today! All of the majority of East Africa is experiencing this incredible wind! So really wondering which way they're gonna go!

There are some big congregations of wildebeests to the south and to the little east of us. I don’t know what’s over the next little rise, but they could quite easily be stuff that’s moved in there during the day that wasn’t there earlier today! Their general routes at the moment have been very much staying in this area; I think they might head a little bit further down to the west, back down toward the Ronga Valley!

And they've had some very successful hunting in that area! There are still quite a few wildebeests around now, of course, these wildebeests that are not part of the main migration that moves between the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara! They are from the Loiter herd! The Loiter herd remains resident in Kenya throughout the year! They don’t always stay in the Mara itself; they do move out of the Mara towards the Loiter Hills!

That's where they get their name— that's their traditional birthing ground! But last year, they didn’t seem to go all the way to Loiter and they stayed in the Mara! Well, some of them stayed in the Mara, and it’s gonna be very interesting to see what they do this year coming!

Oh, those two are having! Very affectionate! Maybe one smacked the other one a little bit hard while they were eating! On that, Denise is wondering: do the cheetahs ever come after our tracks? No, they've got no reason to! We’re not food! We don’t smell like food; we smell like petrol or diesel and oil!

What is that cheetah spotted? Nothing! Just sitting foot! And also, cheetah will try to avoid conflict with anything too big! Even a large male zebra would be a bit too much even for five boys like this, so no, they do not come after our tracks—neither do the lions! No, they don’t! As long as you drive carefully and respectfully and you don’t irritate the animals and push them into corners, then they should never ever come after us in the vehicles!

The vehicles have only been around for just over a hundred years! So the animals haven’t evolved around vehicles! So, for example, if you stood up on the bonnet where a cheetah, a lion, or a leopard could see the bipedal figure of a man, and they've all been competing with hominins, whether it be us or our ape-like ancestors for many moons, that will cause them to react differently! However, in the vehicle, they don’t see that bipedal figure; they don't have an instinctive response to that!

So they completely ignore us while we’re in the vehicle! Now, you do get animals that can be a bit skittish around vehicles, and that's... but genuinely, they haven't seen them at all, and that’s when you've got to really gradually climatize them to the vehicle and habituate them to the vehicle! But know that most, almost all animals, want to have very little to do with our vehicles!

Where to next, fellas? What adventure are you going to take us on next, Mr. Musketeers? Well, we're gonna stay here trying to hunker down from the howling gale! While we do that, let’s go see what Jamie's up to on the other side of the Mara!

I'm looking for a place to hunker down from the gale, but I can't hunker down from the gale without an animal next to me! So where have all the lions gone? This place is full of lions! Why can I not find one, or a leopard, or cheetah? I'm not fussy! Mara Na have gone, so I can't hunt Calder uncle! Cool! Hunker down next to them!

So we just have to brave the climatic conditions until we find ourselves a cat or an elephant or something! Look, there we go! Oh, these roads are the ones the worst hit when it rains! Unfortunately, they're dry at the moment, but it does make for a rather bumpy passage! Craig, is that a lion or a log? It's a log! Log a lot of line logs today! Sign log! Just cheetah termite mounds! Leopard bushes! I'm really good at it!

Even the black-bellied busted is miserable! Nani, we're gonna do this call because what's the point? The voice will just get blown away or not! I don’t—I don’t know! I don't think you're going to be able to hear that call! It is one of the best bird calls, I think in the world! But with this wind howling the way it is, I don't think you’ll hear anything unfortunately!

Well, you will hear something, and that's just wind on microphone noise! Well, at least he’s sort of semi-enthusiastic! He just seems to tuck his head in as soon as he possibly can! One will go for us because the motion is entertaining! I’ll try and do the call! I’ll try and time it with his call! No! Nice shy! He doesn’t want a voice-over artist! That’s fair! I don’t do a very good impression anyway!

No, that didn’t work! Right, well, it’s blowing a gale out here in the Maasai Mara! I’m not sure what the conditions are on Juma this afternoon, but let’s send you all the way across to South Africa where Noel has found something next to the water! Thank you, Jamie!

We do have something interesting next to the water! It is a foam nest! Frogs! Nest! It’s the first one I've seen here in Juma for the season! So the foam nest frogs, the mound, the female get up on there, and he does something called amplexus! He sits on top and she rubs her legs, and they deposit this nest with their goodies inside!

And then, the little babies, when they hatch, they eat through and then drop into the water and then carry on their lifecycle from there! Again, good afternoon! I am Noel, and on camera we have the French Connection, Sebastian! Hello! It is humid, very, very, very warm this afternoon! Don’t forget we are interactive! We are live! You can follow us, hashtag #SafariLive on the Twitter or on YouTube chat, and we love your questions! So send them through!

All right, plants! Sebastian and I are sweating quite heavily, so we run short of plans—concrete plans at the moment! I've been hearing more about these cheetahs that have come through from the money. Let’s see! They’re still just tracking! As far as I know, there hasn’t been any sign of them, but they were heading east and south! Which means hopefully, hopefully, they’ll pop up in our general area!

Tommy went back to her den site this morning; we have no visual on her. Husana, the last I heard last night was that little gully! So we’ll try for him, and then I think maybe we’ll head over to Chitwa Chitwa Dam, but while we’re busy heading over to the dam, hoping for some elephants, let’s head over to Tristan, who would love to say hello!

I would love to say hello! A few drives off, so it’s always nice to be back out in the bush and being out in the wonderful sunshine! As Noel mentioned, my name is Tristan! On camera today, I’ve got VM the volved beast, and as you saw, we were gazing upon a beautiful torch, which is providing some shade for us!

Now, we are coming to you live and interactive from the Sabi Sands, so that means hashtags for #SafariLive on Twitter or YouTube chat if you would like to get a hold of us! Now, the plan for the afternoon is I'm not quite sure! I've just come along Mulches Nest and just driving around this area to see maybe we can get lucky with some sign of Tundi at the end of the day!

I'm sure if she’s still got the den, and she's still at that particular area, she's quite sure to go for what at some point! So I’m hoping to try and find tracks. I know that, apparently, VM said to me that James had tracks for her this morning on a walk in this particular area!

So we're just having a little look around to see if she's maybe not at one of these water holes! And then from there, we’re going to hit towards cheetah Kaplan, and just check around! Check out a line and see, maybe—just maybe—Tingana crossed from Tortuga! But I believe it was in Tortuga this morning!

So that's the kind of plan for this afternoon! But we'll take whatever comes! It’s like I say, it's really nice to be out off a bit of cold while that rain! I haven't spent too much time at Juma! It's nice to see how green it's become! And I’m sure there's lots of interesting things to look at!

So it should be a wonderful afternoon! Just to check on those little mud wallows and have a little look! And then maybe you’ll do up towards Central and then along from there towards cheetah Kaplan! I can’t really go up towards Purple’s Dam with Gauri or Pizza Dam at the moment! It’s probably not going to be the best idea for them!

After that, we are pretty sure we won’t have too much in the way of signals! So we’ll try and stick to the central parts of Juma! We’ll hang around the model a little bit and hopefully we’ll get lucky with one of our spotted cats! If not, it doesn’t really matter! There’s lots of other things out and about! The woodland kingfishers have been going absolutely crazy today! They've been non-stop as they are probably for the rest of the matter of this summer!

So we’re gonna hear lots of them, and I’m sure there’ll be lots of interesting birds out there! Should be a few butterflies! After a bit of rain and having some sunshine like this! So the milliwatts will be a wonderful place to check for butterflies! And well, anything else that we can get along the way will be wonderful as well!

Now, while I'm driving down Bulger's Nest at the moment, it’s quite a difficult road now because of the amount of rain that’s falling! It’s kind of washed the road, and Keen has become very hard! So I'm trying to just check on all the sandy areas for any signs of footprints of one of our cats! Because ultimately if Tundi did cross anywhere here, I doubt she’s gonna walk on the road too much!

It’s a typical thing of cats that are that have cubs and are busy denning is that they don’t actually walk on roads in a sort of linear pattern! What they do is they generally just cross over, and the reason why they do that is because it makes it much harder for things like hyenas to actually follow them! Because their scent gets lost in the grasses! As opposed to a person just walking along the road; hyenas can pick them up quite easily!

Now, somebody who has not battled to find a spot sad cat this afternoon is my friend, but Brent Smith, all the way in the Maasai Mara! And I'm sure he’s having a wonderful time as he follows their sleek, slender, spotted beauties around for the afternoon! Well, they haven't moved at all, and still on top of their termite mound and perusing the surrounds! And there’s not much else about them!

I’m close by to them at the moment, but as we know that can change in a split second, as it did a little bit earlier this evening when they jetted off after that baby impala! You can see some imposing clouds making their way in, being pushed in by this Gale force wind we’re experiencing today!

Now remember this is a live African safari, and you are able then to ask us questions by using the hashtag #SafariLive on whatever platform you might be watching on. Si birds would like to know what bird is faster than the cheetah besides a peregrine falcon? Well, the answer to that is many! Lots! Plenty! A huge amount!

Lots and lots of birds! Any of your small little raptors, your gas hawks, your accipiters will all be able to probably get faster than that! I’m sure terns, swallows—what am I thinking? I’m definitely missing some seabirds that I can probably go quite a bit faster! I mean, give you an example—a black-bellied busted, which is not a very streamlined or agile-looking bird, is capable of flying at 65-70 kilometers an hour!

So if they can do that speed, I'm pretty sure there are lots of other bird species that are actually faster than a cheetah! Sushil is wondering, are cheetahs able to eat much faster than the other big cats? Probably not; they just need to eat a lot faster than the other big cats! So they need to because the chance of them losing their kill to the other big cats or hyenas is very, very, very high!

A 50% chance that they’re gonna lose their kill! So I'd say all the big cats can gulp it down! And I've seen lions and leopards do it when they're about to lose their meal to another lion or a leopard! But it is not something they have to do as often as cheetahs do! And on bigger prey, cheetahs will mainly start at the rump! Most meat—no bones—and it enables them to get as much down as possible before their kill is stolen!

In certain cases, a lone cheetah will even relinquish its kill to a big enough group of vultures! I've seen 60 vultures take chase a cheetah or for a kill! And a bite from a vulture’s beak might do some damage to the cheetah; that will cause it not to be able to run or hunt! Obviously, when you’re in a coalition, it’s a little bit easier; you've got some backup, and you don't have to do all the killing yourself! So when you’re a single animal, it is a little bit—you ought to be a lot more careful! You take a lot less chances!

Now there’s another animal that’s not going to do too much moving during the daytime hours! It likes to wallow about! It’ll be a little bit lazy, but it does it in the water! Let’s see what Noel has found! It reminds me! Oh, alright, everyone, sorry, my connection has come off! Excuse me about that! Hippos! Yeah, it—whichever it is, in front of chitwa chitwa lodge!

Alright, so this morning, I had an extremely interesting question about do hippos get leeches on them? And it’s not something that I had ever, one, thought of, or two, ever heard of! So I did a little bit of research this afternoon regarding that, and I asked a few of my guiding friends that have been in the industry for quite a long time! They also have never heard of hippos having leeches!

Something that’s interesting! Without being able to show you a leech, I think let's look at the hippo without having a leech in front of us! I just want to talk a little bit about them! Leeches are not wholly parasitic! They’re not a parasite or sanguinis all the time! It’s not that they need the blood all the time! Very similar to an oxpecker! What they mainly feed on as adults would be dead snails—dead freshwater snails!

And when the little ones are little, they feed on live smaller snails just as a thought! So they’re more opportunistic when it comes to their need for blood, and it’s not something that they need all the time! The hippos are agreeing with me and never tire of that sound! So as we came up, there he can teach at Chitwa Chitwa Lodge in the background!

As we came up, Sub and I were very envious of these hippos moving about in the water as it’s so hot and humid at the moment! It looks like we might get rain a little bit later in the afternoon! If not us, possibly someone near, as I could think! You guys can see that sort of cloudy buildup in that sky there, and hopefully, it won't be too thick—hopefully, we’ll still get a very nice sunset this afternoon!

Now sadly, there are no elephants swimming or bathing in the dam as we had hoped! Just our chiki chiki chiki hippos! And I’m actually on the lookout for our tiny little hippo that was born a couple of weeks ago! Let's say eight days ago, I feel like the other two have grown immensely in size!

I know there was one born sort of towards the end of October, and he’s probably doubled in size since then! But you’ll notice with a lot of aquatic mammals, hippos, whales, things like that, is that the milk is super, super rich from the moms! And so their growth rate is quite large, especially when it comes to whales! For hippos, it's not as quick, but it is essential because of the predators that would be things like crocodiles! But then also with movements in their habitat!

Now we’re focusing in on the youngsters for you here, sort of playing with the moment. Every time we do this, the ones off camera keep yawning, and I swear they’re doing this on purpose! So we’re gonna go back to these to keep displaying! So that yawn is called a gape! Yeah, see? Now they want to hide! They're very camera-shy!

I'm so sorry, everyone! That yawn is called a gape! And some of it is stretching, just to get everything moving as it cools down before it goes dark! And then they come out of the water! But it’s also a bit of a display, basically! Look how large my touch are! Look at the size of my mouth! And specifically for large males, it’s a show of dominance!

And then for younger males, it's a play on that! Or when they get a little bit older—can we hear all the birds that are in the background? Proud cat mama, you're asking how you tell the age of a hippo! So proud mama, for me, when they're younger, it's a lot easier, especially with the size of their head in relation to mom's head!

But then sort of after about a year or two, they're pretty much fully grown! Year to three years, so they're just... that's that age! I couldn't tell you with an adult hippo unless it was very, very old to be able to say it's very, very old! This is a thigh! I'm glad you guys can hear all that bird chatter in the background! We have a huge amount of weavers, both red-billed buffalo weavers, village weavers, and I think it's the southern mass weavers that I'm seeing now, busy building nests!

We’ve got lots of buffalo, the red buffalo weavers inside this dead tree here! And then over towards our 10:00 o'clock, there’s a stamp at our 10:00 o'clock! There’s a kingfisher that just landed to display near these weavers! Sorry, guys! Do we all love a woodland kingfisher? There we go! Just flew up and had its wings out! Was displaying, and there’s a second one flying in just below!

Beautiful! There we go! Yeah, basically showing off for each other! Look at me! Look at me! How pretty I am! Mate with me! There’s the water thick knee or dick oppa! It used to be called! Calling in the background there, and then they're off! Oh, he splashed down! He’s back! Had a little drink!

There we were chatting yesterday when we saw the woodland about the being insectivorous, and I forgot to mention that I've also seen them catching small lizards and eating them! I was sitting at dinner one night many years ago with guests, and one dug down just to the edge and picked up what looked like a skink or gecko rather, the gecko, and came up and ate it!

We’re trying to see if they’ll display again for us so you can see that flash of blue, and then you'll notice they'll turn as well! So, they’ll open their wings; they flash them, then they turn! So, you can see that bright, bright white! It would be similar to us as humans sort of putting on full makeup and having a nice outfit, and showing off!

Yes, guys, you are correct! It is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful bird! Now with the weavers just getting my binoculars out, you can see Josub, you’re reading my mind today! These ones are not in full breeding colors! And I actually feel like I just got a view of what could be a sociable weaver on the side! They’re blown off, and then there are some females mixed in there as well—a very sort of drab looking!

I want the Sun to come out from behind the cloud so we can see that little pop of yellow, but it's unfortunately not doing! Hahaha, there we go! You can start to see that pop of yellow a little bit more now with the woodland kingfisher! Both the male and female are those beautiful bright, bright colors! But with these weavers that we’re looking at, the males will go into a very bright breeding color scenario, very, very, very yellow!

And then depending on the species, sometimes they get a little bit of orange or rust on the side! And then the females are sort of drab like this! It's more the males that need to display their skills building the nest and the color, as well as oppose to the females; they’re gonna choose off of their... that one on the top left is having difficulty with that barrage!

Sorry men, choose another one! Yeah, Kathy, you’re wondering if they ever impale themselves on the thorns? Kathy, I have very rarely seen birds impale themselves on thorns! So these little bits that are sticking out here are what's known as a spine! So it’s a modified branch! So it is pointy at the end, but they can also grab onto it quite nicely with their feet!

They’ve got passerine feet, so three toes forward and one toe back! That allows them to grip quite nicely! I have seen juveniles of some larger birds sort of trying to navigate within a spiny or thorny bush and having some difficulty! But I haven’t seen too much problems with them impaling themselves!

Oh, I see a Cuckoo in the background! Can we hear it? I think the weavers are too loud! That dear, dear, dear, do! We’re still on the hunt for the Colossus cuckoo! I heard one this afternoon! [Music] Wonderful sound! I heard one this afternoon, and James Richardson! I thought of you! I am determined, between my self-interest and this, we will definitely happen!

We’re gonna get you across as cuckoo on camera! I refuse to let this season go by and have it not happen! Your phantom bird! But we all have a bird like that! We all have a bird that sort of gets away from us! There we can see one of the youngsters from the hippos resting on the mom! Who said? There's a really beautiful view just in front of us at about half 12 of that three-banded clover in this little perfect if the sun’s just peeking through! That’s really gorgeous! Picking up insects on the edges of this little mud pan here [Music] and maneuvering very quickly!

So it's two kitchen spray! But also, when something small like this, you don't want to stand still for too long because you yourself could become prey! [Music] Now, while we’re watching him, I’m keeping an eye out for evidence in this mud of a sand beetle larvae! We were talking several weeks ago about a friend of mine that was busy