3:10
To help with the filming, spy egret has backup. This is dung cam, a camera based on a pile of elephant poo. It even smells the part. It's designed to film on the move. Its zoom lens can capture the elephants' every move. That's not all. It can release a team of spy dung balls to litter the savanna with yet more cameras. One dung ball is radio controlled and can travel without any visible moving parts. With the action covered from every angle, it's time to see what this elephant family gets up to.
The babies must learn the rules of behavior at an early age. Wrestling older siblings is a favorite pastime. They learn their own strength and, crucially, how to play nicely with each other. It's the older elephants who make sure they don't cross the line. It takes a few years before they're big enough to do real damage. But as they get older, they need to be reined in. Those who overstep the mark soon know it. The rules are strict for everyone when the family is on the move, to follow them, spy egret and dung cam join forces. For their own safety, the babies must stay next to their mothers in the center of the herd. But the mud can be treacherous,
and babies must only enter with their moms. But this little one seems to have forgotten the rules. Chasing egrets is irresistible. But as the herd enter the swamp, the baby is being left behind. Realizing his predicament, he looks for his mother, and thinks he's found her. He tags along as the group head into the swamp. But he's following the wrong elephant. With his mother nowhere to be seen, he's lost in a confusion of trunks and legs. The elephants head into the swamp without him. The baby is now alone and afraid. While his herd appear to have forgotten him.
He can smell that his mother is out there, somewhere. But entering the swamp alone could be deadly for one so small. His mother is inexperienced. She's only just realized her mistake. Both will have learned from what happened. He won't misbehave while the family are traveling again. The precious salt and the chance to socialize bring in elephants from far and wide. If an elephant is in the mood to mate, this is the place to be.
This young bull is in a state of must, a kind OF SEXUAL FURY. HE IS SO pumped up by hormones and the excitements of the crowd that he seems to have taken leave of his senses. But will throwing his weight about impress the females? The cows only become fertile once every 2 years, so opportunities to encounter one at the right time are not common. This could well be the first chance this young male has had. He's lucky. And there are no older bulls around to put him in his place. But his rule doesn't last for long. Enter another lusty bull. But the young bull is still charged up with testosterone.
Bold or foolish, he's going into battle. It was incredible to see and to witness first hand this array of these elephants. The elephants in Zikuluma had stopped breeding out of stress and out of fear because so many of their lives were being taken. Some of those holes might even be bullet holes. Some of them might have bullets lodged in them from decades ago. I don't know that I ever appreciated park rangers or wildlife rangers the way that I do now because these are not jobs
that we label as heroes, but these people are on the front lines as anyone at war is, because these poaching wars are very real and the stakes are very high and they are life and death situations. People gave everything to be where we are today. So, that's why I say we're really standing on top of the shoulders of giants. These rangers day and night for decades now have been patrolling Zakouma and ensuring that no more poaching can happen. Simply by providing the space for elephants to return to their natural state, a space of safety, a space of trust.
What's really remarkable about these guys is that 30-year-old elephant has been through all of that, those tough times. They've seen their friends being shot at and they've seen that whole dark period of poaching that preceded African Parks' time. So, uh it's remarkable that they trust us this much. See their eyes and to know that they've chosen, like a conscious choice to forgive humans, just feels massively touching. So, in 25 years filming elephants, there is nowhere else on Earth I have witnessed these bulls learn to trust again. And to have a ranger that they trust come right up to. I haven't witnessed that anywhere on the planet. That makes Zakouma really special. And because of the efforts of African Parks and the local rangers, these
elephants are now starting to mate again and starting to spread out. You're starting to see babies. Elephants feel safe. They're happy. They are very healthy and they are happy breeding. Even the number to start to increase. I was incredibly moved by the story of Akbar and the story of all of the rangers. There were so many rangers who sacrificed their lives in order to bring the peace and the serenity and the healing that Zakouma is experiencing today. So, to meet these rangers and to have a conversation with Akbar, I asked him, you know, if he regrets doing what
he does, or if he's ever scared. And he smiled, and he was like, I want to do this for the rest of my life. This is the greatest honor in the world to be able to provide wildlife the space to feel safe. And I think that if we all were able to learn something from that, we might be able to begin healing nature on a more global level. A trip to the beach is an exciting time for all elephant calves, and is full of new experiences. The river offers the drinking water they need, but it's also a barrier to the rest of their home range. Crossing such a torrent poses a huge threat to a little one. On the same river, further downstream, three other babies need to cross.
There's fresh forage on the other side, but poachers have killed their matriarch. Without her experience, they've chosen a crossing point where the river is deep, and the flow is rapid. Just as they rescue one calf, another is washed away. [screaming] These are the screams of desperate elephants. As the moms panic, they're forced to abandon their calves and swim for safety. [groaning] Somehow, they make it to the side, but they still can't climb up. Their mothers rush in, but can do nothing but watch.
It's a narrow escape and an important lesson in the dangers of the river. Everyone's really pleased. They want to come out and see the elephants. I think a lot of that is to do with Ganesha's popularity. They don't know my name, but they refer to me as the Anakara, which means the guy. The people living here, they always have stories to share about how they saw elephants 20 years ago, 30 years ago. The Western Ghats are a biodiverse mountain range in southern India. Here, a BBC crew are filming a herd of resident elephants. But these sentient creatures are caught in the middle of a conflict.
Their seemingly lush green habitat is in fact dominated by tea plantations. Here, in this changing landscape, Ganesh Ranganathan is working tirelessly to protect India's magnificent giants. They refer to me as Yanakur, which means the elephant guy. The sweet part of my work is I get to follow elephants and I get to spend a lot of time with them. My other part of my work was to ensure that people are aware about elephant presence, try and find ways to reduce the negative encounters that happen between the two species. What was once an unbroken stretch of forest where elephants roamed freely is now a patchwork of farms and plantations, fragmenting their natural habitat.
Currently, this landscape supports about 70 to 80,000 people. This automatically brings people and elephants in a place where they are forced to share resources and space. There's not any other option. We cannot expect elephants not to be here, neither can we expect people not to be here. One source of conflict is the belief that elephants jeopardize livelihoods by eating the tea leaves. But this is not the case. Elephants do not eat tea. Many times you will see elephants standing in tea estates and dusting the mud off or whatever they've plucked off, and at that point of time you will think it is tea, but actually it's the weeds that grow in between these tea bushes.
So, they're actually doing a service to plantations itself. Despite their weeding skills, the presence of such large, curious animals in human landscapes can be destructive. Individuals like Ganesh are working tirelessly to come up with new solutions in order to help local communities affected by these conflicts. For us to be able to successfully track the elephants, we rely on a lot on the networks that we've built over the years. We've basically built a strong network where this information is uh made available to not just us, but to everybody else living in this landscape.
Ganesh has created an early warning system that informs residents when elephants are around, minimizing surprise encounters, and decreasing conflict. And the team is able to observe the direct benefits of his hard work firsthand. So, we've been following this herd in the tea plantations. And this morning, they crossed over into this forest area. They now want to get back across this main road into the tea plantations. And there's a constant stream of motorbikes, cars, and buses. And it's attracted quite a crowd cuz everyone wants to see them come out. Ganesh and the forest guards are just trying to let them cross in peace.
They're trying to hold people and the vehicles back so that they don't feel intimidated, and they can just get across safely and in a stress-free way. Um everyone's got their cameras out to actually see the elephants up close um and out in the open. Everyone's really pleased. They want to come out and see the elephants. I think a lot of that is to do with Ganesh's popularity. He's spread the word about the elephants, and people all respect him. So, they're they're happy to wait, which is testament to Ganesh.
Through education and his innovative warning system, Ganesh has reduced the severity of human-elephant conflict in the Western Ghats, leading to a remarkable coexistence. I think there's a lot of tolerance towards wildlife. People do enjoy watching wildlife and love wildlife. And there is still good hope for wildlife to thrive. completely untouched by man. And then add the fact that it's been protected by an organization for the last few decades, that's Zakouma. We are now in Zakouma National Park. This has been protected land since 1963, but nobody was really managing it. So, there was a lot of poaching that happened, and now there hasn't been any
poaching since 2016. From the moment we landed, it took us an hour to arrive at the lodge that we were staying at. And in that hour, we saw somewhere between 200 and 500 species of birds, of mammals, of various different types of wildlife. The idea that a small organization like African Parks can be welcomed in by the Chadian government to protect Zakouma and work with the local community to bring true healing and abundance to this natural area is an example of what we can all be doing in our local communities. I think it's really inspiring when you hear stories of destruction and a lot of terrible things that happened, and then you come to a place and you see how much it's thriving and how
beautiful it is. You would look to the right and there would be a water buffalo, and then you'd look to left and there would be a giraffe, and then you'd look straight ahead, there'd be an elephant, and then you'd look back to the right and there's a baboon, and everywhere you looked, there was wildlife coming to life and simply being there because it has been able to exist in the way that it exists for so long. Everywhere we go, we see destruction and demise. Yet, everywhere we go, we meet heroes, local people who are giving their lives, laying them on the line to protect their little bit of nature, their wild animals.
Give this thing up for our future generation. The nature is holding source of the country, but we need someone look after that and to keep this thing and protect and safe. The people feel safe. Elephant feel safe. Zakouma is an almost untouched treasure on this planet, and I am so grateful that I got to witness firsthand the breadth of its beauty. Only in Zakouma, we are so lucky to have that kind of source. There is Zakouma's everywhere on this planet of impassioned local people, and they need to be supported, and they need to be championed as just wondrous heroes who we can follow.
In such difficult terrain, good tracking skills are essential to work out where Matt has moved to since his last known position. A fresh footprint is just the sign the team need. The position of the front toe shows that Matt is heading south. But it's too risky to track a 7-ton musth elephant on foot in thick brush. So, the team must navigate their way in by Jeep. Oh. Soon, Matt is in sight, and he's not alone. He's in hot pursuit of a female. And the fact that he's guarding her suggests she's in estrus and ready to mate. But there are plenty of younger bulls here, and they're all interested in her, too.
For the next few days, until the female is no longer receptive, Matt must guard her 24/7. He also needs to show the young bulls who's boss. As he sees off the competition, the crew get caught in the action. But as they move out of the way, they run into more trouble. It's not a good time to get stuck on a log. Luckily, Matt is busy with the younger males. Having finally found a receptive female, Matt won't have a chance to mate unless he can get her away from the other males. And that's no mean feat. South Luangwa National Park in Zambia is a haven for Africa's iconic wildlife. In villages alongside, encountering animals is a part of everyday life. But some encounters can quickly turn to conflict.
My name is Samson [snorts] Mwale. I'm a wildlife filmmaker based in Zambia. Whilst filming for Kingdom, camera operator Samson visits his home village where clashes with the local wildlife are frequent. So, today I had the privilege to speak to people who are member of um the Chipembele Conservation Club. Conservation groups like Chipembele can be vital to improve education surrounding human-wildlife conflict. Wildlife also brings opportunity. It's a major source of income for the area and provides work in roles such as ranging, conservation, and tours in the park. So, in short, [clears throat] But for subsistence farmer Lynette, some
animals such as elephants are a real threat to her family. South Luangwa National Park is unfenced, meaning elephants can cross into neighboring villages at will. For families who solely rely on their crops for food and income, the impacts can be devastating. It's possible The villagers often resort to their own measures to protect their livelihoods. But as much as elephants can bring hardship, they also provide steady income for the area. So how can we protect both farmers and wildlife from conflict? Meet the Rapid Response Unit, an organization dedicated to safely moving elephants away from vital crops. The RRU use chili bombers to deter elephants.
These pellets contain chili oil, which is harmless to the elephants, but emits a smell that they find unpleasant. After spending a night filming the team at work, Samson shares his footage with the village in the hope that they will call the RRU in the future. So what's next for the aspiring conservationists in the village? And Samson's filmmaking will raise awareness internationally. I think film is a very powerful tool that can be used to make people who've never been here understand the reality of living close to wildlife. It gives me hope to see the works that have been done by conservation organization
in this area. I think that's that's more of a push for me to keep doing what I'm doing. In this area of northern Kenya, almost one in five herds are orphan herds. This one is led by a young 13-year-old female called Habiba. So young, she lacks the knowledge and experience needed to keep them safe. The life of this young herd hangs constantly in the balance. Just one wrong decision can be fatal, as another orphan group discovered a few years ago.
Their inexperienced leader decided to cross a river when it was in full flood. A huge error in judgment that put the lives of the young calves in danger. This family was lucky. The calves were washed ashore. But it's a reminder of how important an older, knowledgeable leader is. Habiba has a lot on her plate. Not only does she have the huge responsibility of keeping her herd safe, she's also a first-time mother to Zawadi, who's already proving quite a handful.
Only a year old, he's a plucky little character, always wandering off on his own. Keeping him safe is a full-time job. The latest tracking data shows that this year's gathering will soon be coming to an end. As the vegetation in the reserve starts to dry up, the elephants will take their cue and begin their journey home. Bulls will be dropping out of must and moving on. And families will begin to disperse, heading back to their home ranges across northern Kenya. It's a bittersweet time for the scientists, as the constant threat of poaching means there's no certainty of seeing elephants like Maas again. With the herd soon disappearing, time is running out for Habiba and her family to find help.
But her collar tells us she's heading in the direction of a well-established herd. Its leader is an experienced 50-year-old tuskless matriarch, the ideal kind of female for Habiba to learn from. Little Zawadi makes the first move and approaches a calf in the group. He's put in his place with a gentle nudge, but he doesn't retreat far. At last, they seem to have found a herd that will tolerate them. Desperate for a playmate, it's not long before Zawadi finds a slightly older calf willing to be his sparring partner. This is just the kind of interaction he needs. To grow into a majestic bull like Maas, capable of fighting off rival males,
it's vital that he gets to play fight first within a family group like this one. After the two herds have been mingling for a while, something remarkable happens. As the tuskless matriarch leads her group away, The orphan herd leaves with them. Against all odds, the orphans have finally found a family willing to help them. At last, little Zawadi, Habiba, and the others have older elephants to learn from. Elephants who will hopefully give them the support they so desperately need. As the number of orphan herds increases, scientists are discovering that elephants are finding new ways to adapt.
An intelligent, hyper-social species is learning to respond to the new challenges it faces. Over the past month, Samburu National Reserve has been the setting for a remarkable gathering. Using data from satellite collars, this has been a unique opportunity to see how young orphan herds are coping with the loss of their matriarchs. How bull elephants select females to pass on their legacy. And to witness incredible new elephant behavior.
