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00:01South Africa has some of the world's biggest national parks and game reserves home to an
00:07incredibly diverse range of animals this is very lucky I can't believe you've seen leopards some
00:13of which are critically endangered you don't realize how special it is to be part of the
00:18team that's saving these animals we're following vets and volunteers I don't think I ever thought
00:24I would come here and love it as much as I do all trying to save some of the animals
00:29that live here
00:31come on we've watched the highs seeing them in their own habitats there's nothing more beautiful
00:37and the lows hold on guys hold on jump with the people who are trying to save our planet you
00:44come
00:45out and you see this and you know what can be achieved as a team we make a difference
00:58so
01:27Being a vet in South Africa not only means dealing with wild animals, but also covering a lot of miles.
01:36Emily and Will from Medivets have been called out on two big tasks today.
01:40They must dehorn a mother rhino and her calf, and then relocate three bull rhinos to another part of a
01:46large reserve.
01:48We left this morning about two or so hours ago, and we're headed to a private reserve to go and
01:54help do a rhino procedure.
01:57So moving young bulls out of the high-pressure area so that they can move on to some of the
02:02food.
02:03Because as you can see, it's really dry here, and the animals are struggling with that.
02:07Are you in your briefs?
02:08It's a complicated procedure, and a group of student vets are on hand to help and learn.
02:14So, does everyone understand why we're loading animals today?
02:17They're young bulls, so they're going to be pushed away by their mum anyway.
02:20And all these animals are competing for food and for space where they are.
02:23So we're going to move them to somewhere that they've got less pressure, less bullying, hopefully thrive a little bit
02:27better.
02:28As the students make the preparations for the relocation, Emily turns her attention to the dehorning procedure, which will be
02:35undertaken first.
02:36A mother rhino must be dehorned to deter poachers in this area, while her calf will have some horn taken
02:42for DNA.
02:44I'm just going to load the darts for them.
02:46Rhinoes are incredibly sensitive to opioids, and we use a tiny, tiny amount.
02:51And we're going to start with a mum and her baby.
02:53And the mum needs dehorning, but we have to dart the baby as well, because otherwise there's a chance they'll
02:59be separated.
03:00And the little one's too young to be away from its other.
03:03While we've darted the little one, then it's a good opportunity to be able to take DNA samples.
03:08We're going to sample the horn and some tail samples as well.
03:11Good to go.
03:14Why we're dehorning the animals?
03:15It's to reduce the poaching risk.
03:17Obviously, it doesn't eliminate the risk, and it's not something we do lightly, and it's not something that we enjoy
03:21doing, but it's something that's important.
03:26First, the rhinos must be darted with anaesthetic, so Emily takes to the skies.
03:44Emily has darted the mother and now moves on to the calf.
03:47The calf is still quite awake.
03:49It's just in front of the calf.
03:56The baby is successfully darted, and Emily returns to the ground.
04:04To keep the rhino as calm as possible, a blindfold and earplugs are used.
04:09So I'm going to come and start getting a rest sprain.
04:11While Emily deals with the calf, Will takes on the mum.
04:14He's got a catheter.
04:15Okay, four and a half milligrams are good.
04:19Working close by, both teams carry out health checks.
04:22Let's see what colour she is.
04:25Blood colour's not too bad.
04:27A little bit on the dark side.
04:30What do you think of the blood colour?
04:32Good.
04:33It's a little bit dark.
04:34Okay, so what's left to do?
04:36Have we done a tail sample?
04:38Have we done an ear notch?
04:40Lady power, let's get her on her front.
04:41Three, two, one, push!
04:44We've managed to dart a cow and her calf.
04:46The calf was for DNA, so we took a little piece of ear, some hair and some blood.
04:51As well as taking off a very small amount of horn that had already grown.
05:02Rhino horn is made up of keratin, so dehorning is painless, like cutting off in the mills.
05:08Both of the mother's horns must be removed as part of the efforts being made here to save this species.
05:15Heartbreaking to see us deface an animal and take away that vital part of its profile,
05:22even though we know they can survive in these sort of circumstances without their horns.
05:27We never take for granted the privilege of being able to work with one of the world's most iconic and
05:35special animals.
05:37And it's something worth saving.
05:40Dehorning complete, and the reversal is given to wake the rhino.
05:44Okay, everyone back in the vehicle, please.
05:46The mother and calf are reunited.
05:48But with temperatures rising, Will and Emily must now quickly focus on the next part of the task,
05:53the relocation of three bull rhinos.
06:07At Amoya Kalula Wildlife Centre, Emma is on breakfast duty
06:11and is making up a bottle for one of the newest arrivals, a two-month-old antelope.
06:16We have a lovely little male bushbuck called Bambi that came into the centre a couple of weeks ago.
06:24Unfortunately, what happened with him, and we see it a lot with the antelope, is people think they've been abandoned.
06:29In reality, what the mum does, she hides her little baby in the tall grass, she goes off and does
06:34her thing and forages, and then comes back to feed the baby.
06:38Humans, however, think this baby's been abandoned, so all kindheartedly pick this baby up,
06:45and then bring him to centres like ours, because they think they're in need of help.
06:50In actuality, they should have just left this baby alone, and the mum was coming back.
06:55So it's actually very sad when we see these guys come in, and really we did not need to play
07:00a part if people left well alone.
07:11Bambi gets three bottles a day, and he gets full-fat cow's milk with a supplement of a protexin,
07:17which is just a probiotic to keep his tummy all regular and happy.
07:22We have all different animals that have different feeding schedules, so I think we go up and down and up
07:26and down,
07:27probably about 20 or 30 times a day.
07:29We do walk a lot at the centre, and we normally average around 30,000 steps a day,
07:34so it's a good way to keep fit, but yeah, he needs his bottle.
07:41Bushbucks would normally be with their mums until at least six months old,
07:44so Emma has four months of solid work before Bambi can be considered for release.
07:50Hello, Bambi.
07:53Come on, Mr Bambi.
07:57I'm a-coming.
07:58And some nosy neighbours, you may remember, aren't making things easy.
08:02Uh-uh.
08:10Quickly.
08:11Here we go.
08:14When Bambi came in to us, he wasn't in the best condition, to be honest.
08:18He had a big abscess inside his mouth here.
08:21Um, he also had a lot of mange on his top of the head there, where you can see the
08:25fur's just growing back.
08:27Um, so, he went through a course of antibiotics, um, and then some treatment for the mange, and as you
08:33can see, he's doing a lot better now.
08:37He's actually, if anything, a little bit overweight.
08:41We have a look at the faeces.
08:43Actually, we're obsessed with poo here.
08:45Poo is so important.
08:47It can, it can show us the health of the animal.
08:49It can show us what they're eating, if they're foraging for the right things.
08:52So, everyone can laugh at me, but I absolutely love poo.
08:58The next step for Bambi is to be weaned.
09:03In the wild, at around three months old, he would be encouraged to forage for himself on shrubs and grasses.
09:09So, what we're going to do is actually water down these bottles.
09:12Half water and half dairy.
09:14This means he still gets fluid, but he's going to be hungry, so he's going to want to start to
09:19eat more.
09:20Some animals absolutely despise it, you know, they've gone from this full, fat cream milk to this watery drink, and
09:27they're not so happy.
09:28So, we will have to watch him, and we'll have to monitor him that he isn't losing weight.
09:34A plant-based diet for these animals is a must.
09:37They need this in their diet to survive, actually.
09:40I have seen cases come in where they have kind of been neglected from a plant-based diet, and they
09:47have died.
09:51For him, just to stay on dairy, he's not going to get what he needs from that dairy,
09:55and it's going to just really do a lot of damage to his organs, so we do need to get
10:01him on it quite quickly.
10:11Beccy works at the Maholu-Holu Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.
10:15Come on!
10:17Established almost 30 years ago.
10:19I'm learning so much, and obviously helping a lot of the animals and stuff.
10:25I still sometimes don't feel like it's real.
10:29Jump!
10:31Jumpy!
10:32Jumpy!
10:33Maholu-Holu is a rescue and rehabilitation centre as well as a sanctuary.
10:38We get lots of calls from the public to go out and assist with wildlife casualties.
10:42We will accept any animal that gets brought through our door, whether it's a mouse to an elephant.
10:47So, Maholu-Holu basically is very education-centred, just to help spread awareness and hopefully make some changes.
10:58This is our stable baby called Gracie.
11:02She's about six months now, so she's almost at weaning age.
11:06And she's really turning into like a little adolescent teenager.
11:10Doesn't want to spend as much time with us as usual.
11:13But she seems to have found a friend in Benji, even though there's a big size difference.
11:19Oh, crazy!
11:21Sometimes I, like many times, I forget that this is not reality.
11:27Like, no one at home has a stable who just comes into their house and greets them in the morning.
11:32No one has a baby goat living with them or hand-raises, all these different kind of species.
11:38Becky has an emergency call from the on-site clinic.
11:43Eight vultures have been rushed in, seemingly poisoned.
11:46These ones all came from a nearby reserve.
11:49They were all found on the floor this morning, very, very weak.
11:52The poison is organic phosphate poison that basically stops the body processes.
11:57It's often called two-step poison because they say you'll take two steps before you fall down dead.
12:02They've just been given this heart stimulant, so the heart's going faster again.
12:06And then lots of fluids to help flush the poison through the system to get it out of the system
12:11as fast as possible.
12:18The poisons just kind of feels like it's a never-ending story at the moment.
12:22It's so deflating because they're such an important species and the population's just going down and down and down.
12:28And it's all mainly these poisonings that's happening.
12:31Vultures are one of the most threatened group of birds in the world.
12:35In South Africa, one of their biggest killers is poisoning by humans.
12:39A lot of people believe that if you crush up the brain of a vulture and the eyes of a
12:44vulture, all those kind of important organs,
12:46and mix it in with herbs and things and smoke it, you'll be able to see it into the future.
12:50Because vultures can see their food from so far away and they've got such good eyesight,
12:56they think that they can see it into the future.
12:58So they think they can also take that ability if they smoke that.
13:03Another reason why they're also poison is if someone goes to poach a rhino, elephant, something like that,
13:09they lace the carcass with poison.
13:11So when all the birds of prey and raptors and things come down to feast on that dead carcass,
13:16like they would with any carcass in the wild that they come across,
13:19they will just die from that poison, basically.
13:22And that helps take away the signal of these raptors from telling rangers and working people on those reserves that
13:32something has been killed.
13:34The numbers of vultures in South Africa are now so low,
13:37some of the eight species found here face possible extinction.
13:41So they'll all just keep getting fluids for at least 24, 48 hours.
13:46And then maybe only after they've had bowel movements and they are strong,
13:51that's only when we're going to start worrying about food.
13:53It's a critical few hours for the vultures and a tough wait for Becky.
14:01Having already de-horned two rhinos, Vets, Emily and Will are on to their next task,
14:07relocating three bull rhinos to a new home, a different part of their current reserve.
14:12One of the things we're doing today is trying to take off as many young bulls as we can,
14:16because as you can see it's really dry, there's not much food.
14:19Take them to another area of the reserve where there's a little more grazing for them,
14:22a little less competition, because they're competing with lots of species here,
14:26buffalo, other rhinos.
14:27So what do you need?
14:29Blindfolds, earplugs, ropes.
14:30The students that we've got at the moment are international vet students.
14:34A lot of them are from the UK, but Europe as well.
14:36I find bringing them along to procedures super exciting,
14:38because that's where my journey started.
14:40I was one of these students in 2011, not that long ago.
14:44So it's awesome to kind of see the difference in what's passed.
14:56Emily is heading back to the air to anaesthetise the rhino.
15:10Dart one is in, but the rhino is still running.
15:16So we darted a young bull.
15:18The first two darts didn't work so well.
15:19He ran quite a lot and got very hot.
15:21OK, will you get yourself closer, please?
15:24Two darts and no sign the bull is slowing.
15:27Emily needs to try a third.
15:33The third dart worked treat, and it finally went down.
15:38By that point, obviously, it was also quite tired,
15:40so it lay all the way down, which isn't 100% what we want.
15:43Water, please!
15:46Also, the drugs that we give, they stop the body from being able to monitor its own temperature so well.
15:50So running, plus the body not being able to bring their own temperature down meant that it got very warm.
15:56That could be quite dangerous for them.
15:57So to help with that, we just pour cool water on and help rub it in to try and get
16:00some of the heat to evaporate away.
16:02And the students are also monitoring the temperature, so if the temperature doesn't come down enough, we just go again.
16:07The anaesthetic is partially reversed, allowing the team to get the animal to his feet and use guiding ropes to
16:13get him into the trailer.
16:14Not easy with an animal that weighs two tonnes.
16:19One, two, three.
16:21Three, two, one.
16:25Going to get squashed.
16:26OK, I want a pulse rate and a rest rate. Let's check blood colour again, please.
16:31OK, pull, pull, pull!
16:38Ready with the pulse?
16:41I'm going to try and get him a few buddies to take with him as well, same sort of age.
16:45My aim for the next one is to get the first dart to work so that it never falls over.
16:50We can hopefully get some ropes on and walk it straight into the trailer.
16:53That's the aim.
17:03It's been four weeks since baby bushbuck Bambi arrived.
17:07Up until now, Emma's been hand-feeding him three bottles a day, but things need to change.
17:14Here's getting to this age where we're going to try now half and half.
17:18So when I say half and half, we're going to dilute this full-fat milk and add half just plain
17:24water.
17:24The reason is, this will give him what he needs, but he's still going to be a little bit hungry
17:29after this.
17:30So we want him to start grazing and browsing for himself and to eat solid food,
17:34because it's super important for his digestive system.
17:37So this is the first time we're trying this with Bambi.
17:40We're going to have to see if he likes it or not, if he's going to take it the same
17:43as the full-fat bottle.
17:45But fingers crossed.
17:51Hello, Bambi.
17:53Bambi, come on, Bambi.
17:57Hello, sweetheart.
17:59Come on, then.
18:04Come on, Bambi.
18:05Well, it looks very positive right now.
18:09He's doing absolutely perfect.
18:11He's drinking like it's a normal, normal bottle.
18:16In the wild, their mothers would be letting them have less and less and less and really producing less.
18:21So it's very similar, and it just pushes them a little bit to get them grazing and browsing.
18:27Guys, these are the moments when you can actually pinch yourself a little bit that this is our lives.
18:32We get to help animals like this.
18:35I'm in the middle of nowhere in the bush, surrounded by wildlife.
18:39Amazing weather.
18:41For me, a complete dream come true, and I wouldn't give it up for anything.
18:47We're going to keep doing this.
18:49We're going to do a cut down to a quarter of the full cream milk,
18:52and then to that one, gradually do it in step by step.
18:58Very soon, young man, you're going to be a wild bushbuck,
19:03and you're going to meet a lovely lady friend.
19:08That's the plan.
19:11For every animal that comes in here, it's a lot of hard work.
19:14It's a lot of time.
19:15It's a lot of effort, and you get emotionally involved with these guys.
19:18So definitely, whenever we release an animal back into the wild,
19:22it's a nerve-wracking time.
19:24But when we see them take those first few steps,
19:26and we see that they're not dependent on humans anymore,
19:30we're smiling ear to ear.
19:42It's been a nervous few hours for the team
19:45as eight poison vultures were treated.
19:47Becky is back at the clinic to check on them.
19:50I'm still lying down and looks quite weak.
19:55I think I can give it a shot and try to get more fluids in.
19:59Yes, check the crop is empty first, please.
20:07Okay, you know what?
20:09It died.
20:11He's died?
20:11Yeah.
20:12The eyes are closed.
20:22That's probably the poison is just too far gone into his system.
20:25We don't know how long ago these vultures were actually poisoned,
20:28so it could just be that we got to him way too late.
20:31Himself, as a bird, could be a bit unhealthy,
20:35maybe old or just weak,
20:37or for some reason not quite as healthy as the other birds
20:41that are still alive.
20:42So the poison has just taken to his system too far,
20:45and unfortunately he's passed away.
20:50Marshall, this one's okay.
20:52Do you want to catch him for me, please?
20:56He vomited a pellet up with some food inside of it.
20:59It might be part of the poisoning as well.
21:01Let me just check the pellet up quickly.
21:06There you go.
21:07It's a bit of old fat and meat and things.
21:11So it's actually quite good that they're vomiting.
21:14Often if they come in with a full crop,
21:16so that pouch where they store the meat before the stomach,
21:18if they come in with a full crop and they've been poisoned,
21:22we will always manually vomit them.
21:24And that basically removes all the poisoned meat
21:27from being digested and adding to the poison in the body.
21:31So we want to remove it as quickly as possible
21:33so that more poison isn't entering the system.
21:39So now we're basically putting electrolytes into his crop
21:42to rehydrate him and to flush all the poison out.
21:48Put him down.
21:51This is what he vomited out,
21:53so I was just trying to check what meat it is.
21:55It doesn't seem much like a game
21:58because it's quite thick.
22:00But it doesn't look like he ripped that off a carcass.
22:03It's quite a big piece
22:05with a bit of skin and tenons on as well.
22:08So it could be that it's placed by a human being
22:13that is just a pre-cut pieces of meat
22:15that they scatter around.
22:19It's a crime scene.
22:21Vultures are very endangered animals,
22:22so the evidence we can take from sampling of the poison
22:26and the meat can be then used in court
22:28as evidence, obviously, to help the prosecution
22:31give that person an appropriate punishment.
22:46Nine years ago, Jenna left the UK
22:48and moved to South Africa with husband Sean.
22:53They now have a herd of seven elephants
22:55who roam freely on their reserve
22:56and help undertake vital research.
23:02Arbiturated for me is they can interact with people,
23:05but they also have the ability to be totally wild
23:08and do what elephants would naturally do.
23:12You know, they come, they interact with people on their terms
23:15and then they can go out and be elephants.
23:18So this is Cheshuru, our closest elephant here.
23:21He's the subdominant male.
23:23Absolute drama queen.
23:24We call him the Brad Pitt of the herd.
23:26Cheshuru has met Tom Hardy,
23:28he's met Paul O'Grady and Elizabeth Hurley.
23:30He's a celebrity.
23:32And then the next one along is Chauva.
23:34He's the dominant male.
23:35He's the oldest.
23:36He's a beautiful elephant.
23:38Cheshuru is a typical boy.
23:39So he wants to play all the time.
23:41He wants to rough up.
23:42So you'll see their natural behavior here now.
23:44They sort of jostle and fight with each other.
23:47But it's very gentle, very playful.
23:49They are like big puppies.
23:51Bella's coming through now.
23:52She wants to get in on the action.
23:54Bella's three years old, full of character,
23:56absolute star.
23:58She's beautiful.
23:59She's a lovely, lovely elephant.
24:01So Messina, Bella's mum, comes in every now and again,
24:04checks on Bella, making sure she's OK.
24:07Always likes to keep her quite close by.
24:11I get on really well with Cheshuru.
24:13You also?
24:15Yeah.
24:15You love Chauva.
24:16Chauva, I love you.
24:17Yeah.
24:17So Chauva and Jenna, big gentle giants,
24:20and you guys get on.
24:22Nenedi, she's very relaxed with both of us.
24:25Shane loves to hate me.
24:26And that's just, yeah, just the way that is.
24:29And Messina, she's just a gentle crying girl.
24:33She's the likes of most people, yeah.
24:33She's just fine.
24:43So she's in now trying to get treats from us, so she hasn't learned fully her boundaries.
24:49She'll come in and push you for food.
24:51So Zambezi, when he was younger, definitely not something to have.
24:57He comes up behind me, headbutts me, purely looking for food, and he felt very guilty afterwards.
25:03He looked at me, I was lying on the floor after he headbutts me, and he's like, literally
25:07looking at me like, but my mum doesn't fall over when I headbutt her.
25:10So they are rough at this stage, just purely because they don't know how strong they are.
25:16As soon as the handlers start moving off towards their lunch, the elephants just naturally follow,
25:21and they have such a bond, which is really lovely.
25:24It's that bond that allows scientists from around the world such close access to undertake
25:28vital research.
25:35Vultures are really struggling in the world today.
25:38Pretty much every single species of vulture is either endangered or critically endangered.
25:43There is only about five species of vultures in Kruger Park today, and one of those species
25:49only has 40 pairs.
25:53Two weeks after they were first rushed in, the remaining seven vultures are well on the
25:57road to recovery.
26:00So the vultures that came in, they're now stable enough to move to an outside enclosure.
26:05Now they're much, much stronger, standing, eating nicely.
26:09And while they're out here, we're going to monitor them daily, make sure that they're
26:12getting enough food to build up their strength and condition again.
26:15And also we just like to keep them for a period of time outside so they can exercise, but also
26:20so that we can monitor that there's no relapse of the poison.
26:24It's so nice to see that they're now back to just normal vultures that you would see out
26:28in the wild.
26:29And it really makes you feel like you've helped them.
26:32And to see them want to rip your finger off and put them outside is as scary as sometimes
26:38it is.
26:38It's really nice to see that they're strong and feisty enough now.
26:41Often referred to as nature's cleanup crew, vultures are scavengers.
26:45And so a big part of their rehabilitation is eating.
26:49So at Mahalolo we have a vulture restaurant.
26:52And this is where we put out all our leftover meat, just scrap meat from the day that our
26:58animals may have not eaten or maybe we just have leftovers.
27:09So this is the meat that we're going to put out at our vulture restaurant.
27:12This impala is actually donated to us.
27:15Whenever animals die on local farms, things like that, they offer us the meat to use for
27:20our animals.
27:22Today the vulture restaurant is really lucky to be able to enjoy a big male impala that
27:27unfortunately died, rather than just like the more leftover meat that we usually give.
27:33So the cape vultures and the whiteback vultures, they will feast on the nice fleshy soft meat.
27:39And then once they've demolished the whole carcass, the smaller hooded vultures, they're much smaller
27:44and have a much pointier beak.
27:45Sometimes they're called the toothpick.
27:48That allows them to get inside their ribs, the spinal cord, even inside the eye socket
27:54and things like that to get rid of all the leftover little bits of meat.
28:01Some marabou storks may be dining without a reservation, but the vultures still get their fill.
28:15The importance of the vulture restaurant is we can monitor all the vultures that we've released.
28:20We can see this by the wing tags or leg rings.
28:23We record the numbers and that info we relay back to the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
28:29Vultures play a really vital role in the ecosystem by ridding the landscape of these dead animals.
28:34The animals may have died due to a disease.
28:38Vultures are immune to most African-born diseases, so them being able to completely clear a carcass
28:45of maybe infected meat means that the disease is not going to be spread throughout the food chain.
29:01Pretty much all that's left is the hide of the impala and they even take on the eyeballs, the tongue,
29:07everything.
29:07A successful sitting and being well fed is a great step on the seven vultures road to release.
29:19The elephants are hot, eh?
29:21They're very hot. They're all huddled together, trying to keep a little bit cool.
29:24A hot day is perfect for the research plan with Jenna and Sean's seven free-roaming elephants.
29:29She's fanning herself a little bit there.
29:33We probably do about ten research projects plus a year.
29:36We find them fascinating. It's one of the things we really love to focus on
29:39and what the elephants can actually give back to humans, other wildlife and their counterparts as well.
29:51Are you hot?
29:52He's very hot.
29:53Look at the back of his veins here. Totally pumped.
29:57Beau Berkley is doing glucose research.
30:00She draws blood from the elephants and she does it a certain period of time,
30:03when they've eaten, when they've fast, so very similar to our blood sugar tests.
30:07And she's looking to see how feed affects their blood sugar.
30:11So I take information from zoo animals and help us better understand wild animals,
30:17and I take information from wild animals to help us understand how we can manage animals in captivity.
30:22And the interesting thing about these elephants is that I can do things with them
30:26that's usually only possible with elephants in zoos.
30:31What makes it really special to be able to do it with these elephants is that they have natural browse.
30:36So they're out in the bush, they have the most natural lifestyle possible,
30:40as opposed to, say, a zoo elephant.
30:43So Beau can look at monitoring both supplement feed and natural browse.
30:47So this is my glucose meter, and I have these little test strips that the blood goes into,
30:53and then I stick this into here and it reads the values.
30:56Hi, Sean.
30:59Yeah, so the first thing we'll do is clean off her ears with some methanol spirits to disinfect it a
31:04little.
31:04So what Joseph's doing there now, he's saying in zeve, which means she opens up her ear flat,
31:09which makes it a lot easier for Beau to be able to take the blood sample there.
31:12In zeve.
31:14So she can smell the alcohol wipes there.
31:16So she's having a good sniff and seeing what Beau's up to.
31:21The rest of the skin is really, really thick.
31:23So if you were trying to take blood from any other part of the elephant,
31:25you'd really struggle with the needles.
31:28The neat thing about the elephants is they use their ears for cooling,
31:31and they use counter-current exchange.
31:33So as one vein goes past the other, the heat is transferred down and down and down,
31:39and that helps the elephants cool.
31:40And you'll also see them flap their ears as a way of cooling, too.
31:47Great.
31:47It says 105, so that's about what I'd be expecting for this time of day.
31:52So the goal, really, with this research is to be able to say,
31:55OK, well, this is sort of what happens with their blood sugar on these foods.
31:59Can we develop a feed for zoo elephants, for example,
32:03because there's a lot of obesity in elephants,
32:07and to try and sort of monitor that and have a better feed source for them.
32:11This study is not the only thing keeping Jenna and Sean busy today.
32:17Renowned conservationist Ian Craig has also paid a visit to see the couple
32:20and, more importantly, the elephants.
32:22It's the most extraordinary experience, just seeing the interaction, the trust.
32:27His efforts in elephant conservation were triggered by a traumatic event.
32:38It was in the early 90s. I was in the Matthew's range in northern Kenya.
32:42I was with a friend of mine. We'd just gone on a safari.
32:46Went for our walk, got back in the evening, sitting, having a cup of tea,
32:50and we hear this gunfire.
32:53And elephants screaming, more gunfire, more elephants screaming.
32:56We saw this gang of eight poachers that shot these elephants, cutting the ivory out.
33:02And this was all on community land.
33:04And so the wake-up call to me was, what if these communities really were engaged?
33:09This is their land. They know these people when they come in here.
33:14We can never really take conservation to scale unless we incorporate communities.
33:18These protected areas are simply not big enough to cater for the elephants that are there.
33:24And yet, the community space there can multiply those protected areas twenty-fold.
33:29It's simply an untapped conservation opportunity for all of us, and more than anything, for elephants.
33:36Ian hopes to explore the research facilitated here by Jenna and Sean,
33:40which may link to his work in elephant conservation in Kenya.
33:44Some of the research we're doing is on their communication.
33:47Just tell them to talk.
33:48To talk.
33:51Head shake?
33:55We'll never ask an elephant to do something that they wouldn't naturally do in the wild,
33:59and we reinforce that behaviour and praise that.
34:01Because the elephants are so intelligent, they very quickly pick up that,
34:04ah, if I shake my head, I get oranges, I get mangoes, I get all this stuff,
34:09and all this praise, and everyone loves me.
34:13Can I have your eye?
34:16You see that nicotating membrane?
34:18Uh-huh.
34:19So that's just a way of them cleaning their eyes.
34:21They don't have tear ducts, like humans, so that's how they clean their eyes.
34:27This is the temporal gland here.
34:29So, right now, he's a bit excited.
34:32You can see this little bit of fluid?
34:34Yeah.
34:34I don't know if you want to put your finger in there and smell it.
34:37Try it.
34:41Yeah, and give it a smell.
34:43You can smell it?
34:44And so that's on the air, and all the other elephants can smell it,
34:48and they know what's his mood.
34:52You know, they're fantastic ambassadors.
34:56They're friends.
34:57And it's reassuring to know that the world's leading lights in elephant conservation
35:01are working together to help protect this magnificent species.
35:13Vets Emily and Will, along with their team of student vets, are mid-procedure.
35:18They're relocating three male rhinos to another part of this reserve to help ease the demand on food here.
35:24For the students, it's a baptism of fire.
35:27Water, please.
35:27Water, please.
35:28One, two.
35:28This is only the second species they've worked on.
35:31Usually, we like them to have a bit of practice before we get to their rhinos,
35:33so they've done fantastically for people that haven't had much practice yet.
35:37Okay, who's doing that?
35:38As the time goes on, they'll get more confident in what they're doing as well.
35:41I've got the...
35:42With the second bull darted, the team tie the guide ropes ready to walk him to the transportation trailer.
35:48Okay, he's going to be very awake, guys.
35:49So, should we push him over and pull this one forward?
35:52Or not?
35:54Bigger than I was expecting them to be.
35:57Oh, big boy.
35:59So, we're going to try for one more male.
36:00We're looking for something that's either the same size as the one we've just done,
36:03or bigger, but nothing smaller.
36:05It's a group of males over there, and we don't want them bullying,
36:08and if we put something in a bit smaller, he's probably not going to get a chance to go to
36:11the feed.
36:12He's going to get beaten up.
36:13So, hopefully, the last one will be a bit bigger.
36:16Push!
36:17Okay.
36:22The one we've just done, that's the smallest that can go.
36:38Have you got the butorphanol?
36:39Who's got the catheter?
36:42Okay, students, what weight are you going to dose him for?
36:47Yep, fine.
36:47It's big, eh?
36:50I'm not going to lie, he's much bigger than I thought he was going to be.
36:54The first two rhinos are already on their way,
36:57so Emily jumps aboard and rides with the last one.
37:08After the short road trip with the rhinos across the other part of the reserve,
37:12Emily has made a shock discovery.
37:17One big boo-boo of the day is amongst all us vets.
37:21We still managed to dart a female, which we thought was a male.
37:28The lesson learnt there was that we should have checked before we put her in the trailer.
37:31There's so many of us here and everyone's just assuming that the next person's doing it,
37:36so that's one of the things when you work with big groups.
37:38And I love working with students, but it is also a lot of people,
37:42so you forget the basics, like checking or animal you darted.
37:47Hey, handsome.
37:49It's an indicator of just how much is going on in everyone's minds,
37:53but it's so easy to misjudge it from the air.
37:58It looks like a dinosaur.
38:00We will have to bring back out of where she is now
38:03because it's going to cause a bit of squabbling.
38:05We've got just males on that side and they're all going to fight over the only female that's there,
38:09but we'll be able to move her back.
38:10It's not a disaster, but a bit frustrating.
38:16For now, the female gets to roam, but the vets will have to return to move her back.
38:23What's he?
38:27Having rehabilitated the seven poison vultures, five have been released back into the wild.
38:36The remaining two are also now ready for release.
38:44So we've basically just caught him out and he's going to be released tomorrow.
38:47So we do all our bird work at night. It's safer for the bird and for us catching them.
38:51And when it's dark, they can't see anything because they're dying on our animals.
38:55And so we go in with a torch, basically blind them for a few seconds,
38:59and that's our opportunity to catch them.
39:01So they're not flying into fences. It's also safer that they don't grab or bite us.
39:07All our vultures, we wing tag before we get them released for identification purposes.
39:12And they're very good at helping us monitor these individuals.
39:15So especially these ones now that we're releasing with these wing tags,
39:19when we get feedback, we know that they're doing well after such a big health impact to themselves.
39:26So we know that the work we've done has been worth it and has helped them in the long run
39:30to survive for the rest of their natural lifespan.
39:36Basically, we're just going to put him inside the box, ready for tomorrow to release him.
40:00So these are the two vultures that we're going to release today,
40:02and they're in their box ready to be driven to the release site,
40:05where we'll just open the doors and let them go and join the rest of the wild vultures.
40:14Releases are definitely one of the best parts of our job.
40:19We get to see everything that we've done is really worthwhile.
40:29After a week of them being in the clinic, helping them rehab through the poisoning process,
40:34to be healthy enough to be released again,
40:36and being able to help such a critically endangered species
40:39makes you feel proud that you've been able to help save those individual lives.
40:43because even though maybe it's just these seven vultures,
40:46seven vultures is really critical to such a small population.
41:12So we just released our two last vultures from the poisoning case,
41:16and they flew beautifully up into the sky,
41:18joined the rest of the wild vultures,
41:20and it was really, really amazing to see them join them.
41:24Vulture releases are definitely my favourite releases.
41:26It's such an almost magical feeling inside of you to just see them move up into the sky,
41:32and just the whole scenario of how vultures feed and come down together
41:36the weather is just so breathtaking.
41:38It's such an exciting time.
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