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00:02South Africa has some of the world's biggest national parks and game reserves,
00:07home to an incredibly diverse range of animals.
00:10This is very, very lucky. I can't believe you've seen leopards.
00:12Some of which are critically endangered.
00:15I do 100% believe that we will win this fight.
00:19We will save the rhino.
00:21We're following vets and volunteers.
00:23Trying to steal your hat.
00:24What do you want with my hat?
00:25It's just so special to be able to see them like this.
00:27All trying to save some of the animals that live here.
00:32Come on.
00:33We've watched the highs.
00:35Now he's rehabilitated. It's a fantastic feeling. It really is.
00:38And the lows.
00:39Hold on, guys. Hold on. Jump.
00:42With the people who are trying to save our planet.
00:45If we can all do something to help save the cheetah or the rhino,
00:50then everything adds up and maybe we can all make a big difference.
01:00Everyone is working here.
01:19Let's go
01:30It's February on the Western Cape and peak baby season.
01:35This time of year now is our summer in South Africa.
01:38It's actually winter back home.
01:39And in this season, what we expect to see is youngsters.
01:42Hello. How are you?
01:46Marine biologist Alison is gearing up for a day at sea
01:49on a health check mission.
01:51So we're going to go around the bay now.
01:52We're going to go and have a look at Dyer Islands
01:54and see some seal pups, hopefully.
01:56And we're going to look for the young life in the bay.
01:59And as you can see, the weather's quite beautiful.
02:01There's a little bit of wind.
02:02I'm hoping we're going to have a really nice trip.
02:06Immediately, we've come across a whale.
02:08Oh, there we go, guys.
02:11That's the calf, everyone.
02:13I don't think I've ever seen a calf before.
02:17So this is a Brutus whale.
02:20And these are visitors to the area year-round,
02:22but it's super rare to see a mother with a calf.
02:26It shows there is reproduction going on in this animal
02:28along our coast, and that's always a positive.
02:39We are extremely close to Dyer Island itself.
02:42And of course, this is where our wild African penguins are living.
02:47So African penguins are really a sad story
02:50in that their numbers just keep on declining.
02:52Our colony at Dyer Island used to be 1,500 breeding pairs.
02:56It's now less than 750.
02:57So they're on the decline, and experts believe
03:00only until 2030 they have left as a species.
03:04So overfishing of their food
03:06is actually meaning that they're starving.
03:08Also, avian predation's a problem with their eggs.
03:13Another big problem is the removal
03:15of a crucial resource for the penguins.
03:17When the penguins lay an egg,
03:19usually what they would do is borrow it in guano,
03:21which is kind of a soft substrate
03:23that would protect the egg from being eaten.
03:25And now, because of all the fertilising industry
03:28scraping the guano off this island many, many years ago,
03:32still the bedrock is too barren for the eggs to be protected.
03:38The local community now make man-made nests
03:41that mimic the penguins' natural burrows.
03:46So that was a project we specifically designed
03:48in order to help the penguins when they've laid their eggs
03:51to protect their eggs from avian predation.
03:54So we started building these nests.
03:56They're very popular,
03:57and the nice thing is the penguin can then lay its egg,
03:59the egg can hatch,
04:00and then the young and the adult
04:01can then inhabit the penguin house.
04:08But here you can see a really rare example
04:10of a large group together on a fishing trip.
04:13I don't think I've ever seen so many of them together like this
04:15in the wild open ocean.
04:23Next stop for Alison
04:24is to check on the babies from the Cape Fir seal colony.
04:29A mere 60,000 of them.
04:39Part of the Medivet team,
04:40Annie must tackle a relocation procedure
04:43with a species she's rather fond of.
04:49My favourite animal to work with is probably rhinos.
04:52Almost a bit like working with dinosaurs.
04:54When you see them,
04:55there's something really special
04:56about working with a rhino.
04:57They're also relatively easy to anesthetize,
05:00relatively easy to work with.
05:02White rhinos especially,
05:03because they are so placid,
05:05so they're quite nice animals to take to groups
05:08when we have students come and visit us.
05:10And the rhino being moved today
05:12has got history with the team.
05:14We're moving her because on a previous darting
05:16where we moved quite a lot of animals,
05:18she was darted wrong.
05:19They were supposed to be moving males,
05:20and they accidentally caught a female.
05:25The team led by Emily had the task of relocating three bull rhinos
05:29from one side of the vast reserve to the other
05:32to ease the demand on food.
05:35Everything went to plan.
05:37That's it, minding your food.
05:38Until they discovered that one of the rhino moved
05:40was in fact a female.
05:43Lesson learnt there was that we should have checked
05:45before we put her in the trailer.
05:46There's so many of us here,
05:47and everyone's just assuming that the next person's doing it.
05:51Hey, handsome.
05:53That's one of the things when you work with big groups,
05:55you forget the basics,
05:57like checking what animal you darted.
05:59We've got just males on that side,
06:01and they're all going to fight over the only female that's there.
06:04So we will have to bring back out of where she is now
06:07because it's going to cause a bit of squabbling.
06:12Let it just be known that I did not dart the wrong rhino.
06:17It's time to rectify the error.
06:19Head vet Will is already on site,
06:22briefing student vets on today's task.
06:25I'm going to put a rope around her back leg
06:27so that when she does get up, we've got a break,
06:30and then we're going to need a rope around the front,
06:32around the nose.
06:33It's really important that everybody knows
06:34exactly what's going to happen.
06:36It's really dangerous working with the wildlife.
06:37It's really dangerous working with the drugs that you work with,
06:39and actually the most dangerous thing about working with wildlife
06:42is the logistics.
06:44The first step of the relocation procedure
06:46is to anaesthetise the rhino by dart gun.
06:49But this time round, Will and Annie have no helicopter.
06:53We're going to approach them on a vehicle,
06:54which is not how you would normally dart a rhino.
06:56We usually use your chopper.
06:58Helicopters make our lives a lot easier,
06:59but they also put an extra layer of stress on these animals.
07:02So if you can drive up to them with a vehicle
07:04and stick a dart at him without him to chase them with a helicopter,
07:07then that's first prize.
07:09We're hoping to get about 20 metres away from her,
07:11and then we'll put a dart in.
07:15Three in the middle.
07:16It's the one on the left.
07:20They've located the female.
07:22Do you want me to make my range finder?
07:24Annie needs to check she's in range for the dart.
07:26Anything below 30 metres is good.
07:2924.
07:35Wait for the side shot.
07:42We can't shoot her when she's looking at us.
07:45It's all hit her in the face.
07:52I'm going to aim for the shoulder.
07:53She's got good muscle, good absorption of the tracks.
07:57I'm going to take her to the side on.
08:03The risk is that if that dart just goes slightly skew
08:07or goes subcutaneously,
08:10then you have an animal running away with half a dose
08:13or maybe a dart stuck in it that hasn't released
08:16and you've got serious problems.
08:20He's slamming directly behind the tree.
08:23Take your time.
08:24Yeah, I haven't got a shot of the shoulder at all.
08:28If we go forward another metre or so,
08:31it's just this tree is right in the way.
08:36After edging forward,
08:38one of the bull rhinos takes matters in hand
08:40and blocks Annie's shot.
09:04Annie had to take her time initially to get that dart in.
09:07I wasn't worried about that.
09:10That went well in the end.
09:12The dart was good.
09:14But then we had the situation
09:16where these animals were careering off.
09:21I actually expected them to stop
09:23about 100 or 200 metres away.
09:29But they didn't.
09:30They just kept going.
09:31And then things got really interesting.
09:41We followed the journeys of many injured
09:43and orphaned vivette monkeys and baboons.
09:46Holly and Ivy.
09:47They're not siblings.
09:49Yeah, I know.
09:50We've got Holly and Ivy.
09:52Right.
09:53Come on then, little girlies.
09:54Let's go see.
09:55Nikita.
09:56Obviously, each one's individual,
09:57but I think she's going to be a proper little character.
10:00And the arrival of nine new babies.
10:03Have they been good?
10:04How are they?
10:05Yeah, they're good.
10:07Are we being nice?
10:10Well, you get that one too, do you?
10:13So, what's life really like
10:15for a volunteer at Riverside Wildlife and Rehabilitation Centre?
10:19Yeah, some mornings.
10:20Oh, very quick.
10:21Make beds.
10:23Put our clothes on.
10:24And then off we go.
10:28Hi, guys.
10:33Are you decent?
10:34You coming out?
10:35Yep.
10:36Come out to play.
10:41Since the centre opened,
10:43more than 3,000 volunteers
10:45have had a chance to help rehabilitate the monkeys here.
10:48Our volunteers are very, very important.
10:51We couldn't do it without volunteers
10:52because obviously they help us with preparing the food,
10:54they help us look after the animals
10:55and they help us with all the cleaning as well.
10:58They're sorted for the day.
10:59They've all hopefully got their food.
11:00They'll have more food at lunchtime.
11:02We have our breakfast once we've fed the animals
11:04and sorted the animals.
11:06Yeah, that's it.
11:09Breakfast time.
11:10We can go in.
11:12We have a whole range of volunteers.
11:15Had somebody from Venezuela,
11:17someone from Mexico,
11:18so a great big range of people.
11:22I get really sad when some of the volunteers go,
11:25you know, they're just here.
11:26It's like your children almost.
11:27And if there's any sickness or illness
11:29or anything like that,
11:30I'm sort of like,
11:31well, I deal with it as it's my child.
11:34They just help us work with the animals
11:35to get to the stages where we can rehabilitate them.
11:38Oh, my God.
11:43Every day we do food prep in the morning
11:46where we prepare all the food for the animals.
11:49It's quite hectic because we have,
11:51I think it's about 30-odd crates, if not more.
11:53We're chopping it, we're cutting it,
11:55we're breaking it.
11:56Different sizes for different animals.
11:58All the food we give them,
12:00we would eat ourselves.
12:03We also say to all the volunteers here,
12:05if we've got any fruit or vegetables
12:07that you want to eat,
12:07you can have.
12:08So, obviously, especially with vegetarians,
12:10it's quite handy.
12:19When babies arrive,
12:21they come from all different places.
12:22They come in, the mother's been shot,
12:24they've been abandoned, they're ex-pets,
12:26so there's lots of different reasons.
12:27But when they come in and they're still a baby,
12:29which means they're still reliant on their mums,
12:31or would have still been reliant on their mums,
12:33that's when we step in.
12:34So we feed them, usually formula,
12:37and then we just treat them as babies,
12:39so we have to feed them at a regular time every day.
12:41Some of them, if they're really young,
12:42it's on demand,
12:43we literally walk around with them,
12:44look after them.
12:45But we basically just look after them
12:47as if they were our own children,
12:48because they would be used to being with a mum.
12:57The volunteers do get more attached
12:59than probably the vervets do,
13:00so we don't usually keep them with the same person.
13:04For that reason, for the attachment reason,
13:06we don't want them to get just used to one person
13:08and that person leaves.
13:12The Luca definitely loves the bananas.
13:15Keeps eating the skin,
13:16but you can't eat the skin.
13:20It's been really amazing meeting everybody.
13:23I haven't had a bad experience
13:24with any volunteer here.
13:28We also had Rachel,
13:30who has just about finished all her exams in primatology.
13:33This is my third time here.
13:35I was studying biological anthropology,
13:37and most of my interest was for primates.
13:41Reading all these different articles,
13:43scientific journals and whatnot,
13:45you learn this hard facts.
13:48But here at a rehab centre,
13:50it becomes alive.
13:57There's a clinic on site
13:58where owner Bob is happy to share his knowledge
14:01with the volunteers.
14:03Now, they are very clever.
14:04They will flinch the teeth like humans.
14:06So they've got a little pouch here
14:07where they normally put all their food in,
14:09in the side of their mouth.
14:12And night time means night feeds.
14:15You don't ever think you'd be taking a baby baboon
14:17to bed with you,
14:18but that's what this place is like.
14:24And it's not just the animals
14:26who get a late-night snack.
14:27You work day and night here,
14:29but it's the most rewarding thing.
14:30Yeah, I work hard here,
14:32but I honestly don't feel like I work a day in my life.
14:36That's what the volunteers get up to.
14:38Well, some of it.
14:39But the journey of the monkeys here
14:41is a long one as well.
14:48After a 30-minute stakeout,
14:50vet Annie managed to successfully dart a female rhino
14:53who's being relocated.
14:55Again.
14:55Dart in.
14:57But before the anaesthetic has a chance to kick in,
15:00the crash of rhino was bolted.
15:03Then we had this situation
15:04where these animals were careering off.
15:09I actually expected them to stop
15:11about 100 or 200 metres away,
15:13but they didn't.
15:14They just kept going.
15:17It's really unhealthy for an animal
15:19to run for a long distance after darting
15:21because they're using a lot of muscle energy,
15:23they're getting very hot,
15:23and that can make their anaesthetics really risky.
15:26Annie and Will need to get eyes on her.
15:29Everyone hold on tight.
15:31Get a bit bumpy.
15:33There's no helicopter today,
15:34but luckily, the team have backup.
15:41We put the drone up to follow them,
15:43and at that stage,
15:44the drone pilot reported
15:46that one of the animals was lagging back,
15:48so I thought, great, you know,
15:50this is all going exactly as we thought.
15:53I'm pretty sure it's the one at the back.
15:54Looks like she's over here
15:56on the other side of the ridge.
15:57Yeah, if we hang back,
15:58it'll be the darted one,
15:59so we kind of relocated one now.
16:02We ended up running in his direction
16:04while the other four went the other way,
16:07and to our horror,
16:08discovered that that was not the darted animal.
16:16Now the team have lost eyes
16:17on the rest of the rhinos.
16:19OK, I've got the ants.
16:21It's going to try to get closer to the drone.
16:23So we're having a little bit of trouble
16:24locating the rhino that we've darted now.
16:26We lost visual of her on the drone,
16:28so we don't know exactly where she is,
16:30and by now she's going to be showing symptoms,
16:32so we need to find her now.
16:35For speed, Annie and Will split up,
16:38and it's Annie who finally tracks the female down.
16:42Looks like she's over here
16:44on the other side of the ridge.
16:45So Annie then eventually caught up
16:47with the right animal.
16:48I think we might have a disaster avert.
16:52OK, let's just approach slowly.
16:55The rhino's characteristic high-stepping dance
16:57shows the drugs are having the desired effect.
17:00With Will still on his way,
17:02Annie makes the decision to move in with limited kit.
17:07Annie then obviously had to deal with the semi-asleep rhino
17:11without the rest of her backup team, which was us.
17:15Have we got a blindfold?
17:17It's really important to get a blindfold over the animal
17:20because they are slightly more dangerous
17:22if they're standing up and they can see you.
17:24It's very helpful to have a blindfold on,
17:26and also if the rhino then wakes up during the procedure,
17:28it's not orientated, and it makes the procedure safer.
17:32Ready?
17:32Annie moves in with some stand-in props.
17:45The rhino is also tethered to try and keep it still,
17:48and Annie attempts to take bloods.
17:52But with limited numbers of student vets on hand,
17:55nothing is easy.
18:03And now there's an even bigger problem.
18:06The female rhino is edging forward
18:08and getting closer to a steep drop.
18:25Nine years ago, Harriet packed up and moved to South Africa
18:29to get hands-on in conservation, a passion of hers.
18:34The more I work with elephants,
18:35the more just extraordinary they are.
18:39I would spend my last ten minutes of life on Earth
18:42sitting and watching elephants.
18:46And Harriet chose the largest land-based mammal
18:49in the world to work with at Elephants Alive.
18:52Elephants Alive's vision or ethos
18:55is to protect elephants and their habitats
18:57and also to mitigate,
18:59try and reduce human-elephant conflict.
19:03Elephants' natural behaviour leads them to push trees over.
19:06This actually benefits the ecosystem,
19:09keeping the bush open
19:10and allowing new seeds to germinate.
19:12That can become a problem for some landowners
19:15that it can lead to them
19:16wanting to reduce the numbers of elephants.
19:19Elephants can damage trees
19:20and this gets particularly exacerbated in drought.
19:24When the elephants come to where there's artificial water holes,
19:27where all the lodges are in the private reserves,
19:29and then there's water there, there's nothing to eat,
19:32and so the elephants damage the trees
19:33and the landowners don't like the damage to the trees.
19:38Harriet, field researcher Ronnie, and the rest of the team
19:41are pioneering an unusual solution to this problem.
19:45Scientific research shows that these enormous animals
19:48are frightened by one tiny little thing.
19:54It has been known for a while
19:56that elephants are frightened of bees.
20:00Bees sting elephants
20:02where their skin's most sensitive,
20:04in the corner of their eye
20:05and at the tip of their trunk.
20:07And so here in South Africa,
20:09Elephants Alive has pioneered this research,
20:12looking at using beehives here.
20:14And what we've done is hang beehives
20:18in particular iconic trees.
20:20So we can't protect every single tree,
20:22but if the lodge or the game reserve
20:23has particular iconic trees,
20:26we have experimented
20:29for hanging these beehives in the trees.
20:32The team have hung over 50 live hives
20:35around the local area.
20:36And today, Harriet and Ronnie are on the road
20:39to see if all their work's paying off.
20:44But it's a dangerous game.
20:52During baby season,
20:54Alison takes to the sea
20:55to keep an eye out for any injured or sick animals.
20:59So we're just launching out of Claim by Harbour.
21:02We're about to go out to Dye Island
21:04where we go look for Cape Fear Seals
21:07that are either injured,
21:08bitten by sharks,
21:09or have plastic on them.
21:12And particularly, we're looking for babies
21:13because there's juveniles on the island.
21:19Hello, guys.
21:21Here you can see the 60,000 Cape Fear Seals.
21:23These tiny babies on the beach,
21:25they're the young of the year pups
21:27and they were born November time.
21:29The seal pups are really quite cute and cuddly.
21:31They are adorable.
21:32Look how small they are.
21:34And they're black in colour.
21:35They've been weaning on their mother's milk
21:38that is actually 40% fat.
21:40So it takes them no time at all
21:42to get that nice layer of blubber around them
21:44to insulate them from the cold waters.
21:46And remember, the ocean's pretty cold here.
21:48We're in the Atlantic.
21:49So they're getting some sunlight on their bodies.
21:51They're warming their temperatures back up again.
21:55And even the ones in the shallows here
21:57that stick their flippers out,
21:58they're actually warming the blood
21:59within their flipper in the sun
22:01and then that blood transfers around their body
22:03and it regulates their temperature back to normal.
22:17So the moment is lots of mother and baby playtime,
22:20learning and social behaviour moulding.
22:25What we're doing today is we're just having a scan of the area,
22:28particularly along the beaches of Giza Rock,
22:30to see if we can find any seals that are injured,
22:33any babies that are not doing well,
22:35because if we see them struggling,
22:37then we can actually bring them back to shore
22:39and rehabilitate them.
22:41We're right in the middle of Shark Alley
22:43and this is known as the McDonald's drive-thru
22:45for great white sharks.
22:47The young, young, young seals often are the ones
22:49that stray on the side of the group
22:50or get left behind.
22:52And of course, that then makes them quite vulnerable
22:54to shark predation
22:55because a great white is going to take the easiest pick.
22:58It's not uncommon to see them with bite marks on them.
23:00So we're just busy analysing and scoping
23:03out the scene to see if we can find any that are injured.
23:05But so far, it looks pretty good today.
23:07Given that we had two great whites seen in the shallows
23:11just days ago,
23:12and you see all these animals are so close to the rock,
23:15there's none in the middle of the channel,
23:17I wouldn't be surprised
23:18if there has been a great white patrolling here.
23:22This Cape's first seal
23:23is capable of diving down to depths of over 400 metres.
23:27They can hold their breath for about eight minutes.
23:32I'm just watching a couple of them at the moment
23:34porpoising out the water.
23:35And that's usually characteristic
23:37that a shark's chasing them down.
23:39When you see them on the open ocean,
23:40if they start to do this porpoising behaviour,
23:43it usually means they're trying to throw a predator off track.
23:46So if you imagine a great white
23:47that's using its eyesight
23:49and it's foraging from the depths
23:50and it's seeing the silhouette of the seal on the surface
23:53and it's targeting and lining the seal up,
23:55if the seal starts to porpoise out the way,
23:57then it actually impedes the ability of the shark
24:00to line it up and make a direct kill.
24:09It's just been a lot of fun observing them.
24:13You could run trips for seal therapy
24:15because just, you know, sitting here observing them,
24:18it's so magical.
24:21Luckily, we've not seen any with injuries,
24:23so that's an indication that probably
24:25there hasn't been much shark activity here this morning.
24:28The young population of newborns look really healthy.
24:31Obviously, in a few months' time,
24:32as they start to get more experienced,
24:34their lives are going to change quite drastically
24:36and they're going to have to spend
24:37all their time avoiding risk.
24:39But right now, it's just so fun
24:41watching them have fun and being real babies.
24:56Harriet and field researcher Ronnie
24:58are off to see the results
24:59of a pioneering experiment they're doing
25:01to try and reduce human and elephant conflict.
25:04Because of the impact the elephant behaviour
25:06can have on trees,
25:07Harriet and the team are trying to deter the elephants
25:09using African honeybees.
25:18So we hung 50 beehives and then we also have 50 trees
25:22with wire netting wrapped around their trunk
25:24and then 50 trees that don't have any preventative measures.
25:29First up on their visit to check the results
25:31are the trees that had no beehives hung.
25:34How long ago do you think this was damaged?
25:35We can check on our records.
25:37This is new from our record, I think.
25:41Is the tree completely dead now?
25:43And I see ants' activities also.
25:45So the wood's completely rotten now, isn't it?
25:47And termites, yeah.
25:48Termites.
25:50I don't see any fungus.
25:54Yeah, that's completely dead.
25:57Next up, it's better news for the trees
25:59with wire netting on the trunk.
26:02There's no damage to this tree?
26:06The elephant hasn't tusked the tree?
26:08It's looking good.
26:09OK.
26:10This simple method prevents elephants stripping the bark
26:13but does not stop them knocking the trees over.
26:17Finally, Harriet and Ronnie see the results of the trees with bees.
26:21OK, and this one's active.
26:22You can see the bees coming in and out.
26:25Any damage on the tree?
26:27Damage on the tree?
26:29No.
26:29On the marula tree?
26:31No.
26:37There's some elephant dung here.
26:39So obviously elephants have actually come close to this tree
26:42but haven't damaged it, haven't destroyed it.
26:45No.
26:46So we've got this lovely research data
26:48that showed that only 6% of the trees with the beehives
26:51had any damage.
26:5344% of the trees with the wire netting had some damage
26:56and 66% of the trees that had no preventative measures
27:01were damaged.
27:02So the beehives protect the trees.
27:04So the African honeybees have done their job.
27:07Ronnie, it's time to harvest that sweet, sweet honey.
27:39Now we are swimming around us.
27:41It's just that it's getting more, more, more informant.
27:44It's just that it's getting more, more, more informant.
27:50This is called Plantex glue, and we put it on the ropes
27:54to stop ants from raiding our hives.
27:58The ants are attracted to the honey and the brood,
28:01and so certain species of ants will raid these hives
28:04and the hive will actually end up leaving.
28:07Working a little bit on the wild side.
28:09That sounds familiar.
28:10There's a whole swarm of bees just below me.
28:15Anyway, four honey frames today,
28:17but by the height of the wet season,
28:19they'll be taking away up to 50 frames of honey.
28:27Back at base, the honey is extracted from the frames,
28:29and Ronnie can showcase his special relationship with the bees.
28:32They know me, they know my voice,
28:35so I think whenever I'm trying to talk to them,
28:37they know that there is around,
28:39and they need to behave and not staying dirty.
28:43And the honey, it's more sweet when I talk to them.
28:48Local communities have bought into the project,
28:50helping protect them from elephants
28:52and selling the honey that's produced.
28:55It's very much Elephants Alive's belief
28:58that we're not going to solve conservation issues or challenges
29:01unless the local communities are involved
29:03and the local communities are deriving benefit
29:06from the wildlife in their neighbourhood.
29:12There you go.
29:14There is your golden-looking honey,
29:17very nice and clean.
29:19And on your bucket,
29:21you'll have a very nice, fresh, clean honey.
29:23It's a beautiful win-win-win project
29:26because the elephants aren't damaging the trees
29:28so that there's no conflict with the landowners.
29:32Trees are being protected
29:33and now the communities are also deriving
29:36alternative livelihoods and building new skills
29:38and we all get lovely, elephant-friendly honey.
29:52At Riverside Wildlife Centre,
29:54volunteers are vital in the rehabilitation
29:56of orphaned and injured primates,
29:58including baboons and vivettes.
30:01But the stages of rehabilitation are just as crucial.
30:05Debbie knows the journey they must take
30:06and there's a starting point for them all.
30:09This is our quarantine area.
30:11So when the animals come in that are bigger than babies
30:13and not reliant on having to have bottles
30:16and being fed at night,
30:17they come into quarantine.
30:19We've got a few in at the moment.
30:21In quarantine, they're here for about 40 days.
30:24We'll TB test them,
30:25we will do a health check
30:26and just keep an eye on them generally
30:28because we don't want to be releasing poorly animals
30:30into other enclosures
30:32where it will affect the other animals.
30:34When the 40 days is up,
30:36we then process them
30:37so we would sedate them
30:38and we would then measure them,
30:40weigh them.
30:41There's some international standards
30:43so that if you want to look at statistics
30:45and data on the animals,
30:47you've got it
30:47and then they would get put
30:49into the next appropriate enclosure.
30:53If they are babies,
30:55they come and we actually take them into Georgie.
30:57Georgie's our enclosure for all our little babies.
31:02And we're allowed to interact.
31:04We go in here,
31:04we sit with them,
31:05feed them.
31:11So we have 24 vervets in here
31:13but we also have four baby baboons.
31:15In the wild,
31:16they actually don't interact
31:17but they do work really well in here
31:19with each other.
31:21You'll very often see
31:22a couple of vervets
31:23hanging on to the baboons.
31:25They're in ages,
31:26they're in backgrounds,
31:27very active.
31:30I have to say,
31:31this is a really strange thing
31:33to be here,
31:34to handle the monkeys,
31:35knowing that we can make
31:36a difference
31:37and get them rehabilitated
31:38and back into the wild
31:39but when you're handling them like this
31:40it does seem,
31:41oh, how are they going to do that?
31:42How are they going to manage?
31:43But they do.
31:45But it is really funny
31:46when you look about it
31:46in your own life.
31:47You know,
31:47I was sitting in an office,
31:48working in an office.
31:52These are Chakma baboons
31:53and they are our babies
31:55although some are
31:56a little bit older than baby now.
31:57They range from about
31:59eight months
31:59to just under two years,
32:01I think.
32:03So these are the ones
32:04that we take out
32:04for the baboon walk.
32:08They have baboon walks
32:09every day
32:09which I think
32:10is most people's highlight
32:13because they're really cute.
32:24We go down to the river
32:25and forage,
32:26climb the trees,
32:27they can do
32:27all their natural things.
32:32It's very good exercise for them.
32:34They scratch at the ground,
32:36they pick up the leaves,
32:37they do the berry.
32:38It gets them used
32:38to their environment
32:39of what they will
32:40eventually get released into,
32:42hopefully.
32:44It is really nice to see them
32:46growing up.
32:47See?
32:48But you are mischief,
32:50aren't you?
32:50This is Tiger.
32:51He's the oldest one in here
32:52and he is,
32:53he's not Papa Alpha
32:54because they don't have
32:55Alphas at this age
32:56but he's the boss in here.
32:58They'll be in here
32:58for a few months
33:00and then they will get
33:01moved to the next
33:02enclosure, Middles.
33:06So this is Middles,
33:08this is our
33:08juvenile baboons
33:09and they're probably
33:10two and a half
33:11and up to about
33:12four years.
33:13We'd still have
33:13interaction with these
33:14once we're still allowed
33:15to go in actually
33:16in with these
33:16but these don't go out
33:17for a walk.
33:18But it's quite tough
33:19going in there now
33:19because they're a lot
33:20bigger and heavier
33:21and they're a lot stronger
33:22so if they're jumping on you
33:24you have to
33:25be quite strong
33:26to take it.
33:28Don't we?
33:28Yeah, we do.
33:29Yeah.
33:30Hello.
33:33And this cage has got
33:34electricity all the way
33:35around because we do
33:36want them to get
33:36conditioned to have
33:37electricity and when
33:38they get the release
33:39we want them to not
33:41go near electricity
33:42and to not go near
33:43farms.
33:46So this is our next
33:48enclosure after Middles.
33:51So these are all a lot
33:51older, four or five
33:53years old.
33:53So again, it's just
33:54getting used to
33:55electric fencing
33:55but it is giving them
33:56more space and more
33:57of their natural
33:57environment.
34:01Hey.
34:01Hello.
34:03We're not actually
34:04supposed to interact
34:04with these ones too
34:05much because this is
34:06the final camp.
34:07This is the final stage
34:08for them so that they
34:09can be released
34:11hopefully very soon.
34:12They still actually
34:13come to us but they're
34:14nosy, they're inquisitive.
34:15They want to just see
34:16what's going on and
34:16they'll sit and they'll
34:18watch you for ages
34:19as much as we'll
34:20watch them.
34:22We had about 30,
34:23I think I want to say
34:24it's 36 baboons in
34:25here but now there's
34:27probably at least
34:28another 10, 12
34:29because we've had a lot
34:30of babies.
34:30We obviously monitor
34:32them and keep an eye
34:32on them but we
34:33actually don't interfere.
34:35It's their business.
34:36This is it.
34:37This is their final
34:38step here into the
34:40wild so hopefully
34:42very soon these will
34:43have the freedom that
34:44they need away from
34:45any human intervention
34:45and anyone actually
34:46wanting to kill them
34:48or name them and then
34:50they'll hopefully have a
34:51really lovely life.
34:53Won't you?
34:54See?
35:00Yeah, I just look at them
35:02and they just make my
35:03heart melt.
35:04Right.
35:07But I don't get too sad
35:10or whenever when they
35:11move on because I know
35:12hopefully they're going
35:13to a better place.
35:14I mean the idea is that
35:15we want to rehabilitate
35:16them and put them back
35:17into their natural
35:17environment.
35:20So for me it's a little
35:22bit sad but it's much
35:23happier.
35:23I don't get too attached
35:25because I know they're
35:25going to go but I'm happy
35:28because they're going
35:28to a better place.
35:38There are many
35:39endangered marine
35:40species.
35:41One native to South
35:42Africa is the African
35:44penguin whose population
35:45has decreased by 90% in
35:4830 years.
35:51Protecting the new
35:52arrivals in baby season
35:53is crucial for Alison
35:54and her team.
35:56So what we have
35:57formulated is a penguin
35:58sanctuary and that is a
35:59key project in order to
36:00try and help penguin
36:01rehabilitation.
36:03The whole incentive
36:04behind having this
36:05facility is that every
36:06bird counts.
36:09The babies are hand
36:10fed and given supplements
36:12and vitamins to get
36:13them healthy.
36:14Initially what happens
36:15when a bird comes in and
36:16is really weak the process
36:18is about gaining its
36:19strength but also we're
36:20giving it sufficient
36:21nutrition to help with
36:23recovery.
36:23It's easy to spot a baby.
36:25They have blue, grey,
36:27downy feathers which start
36:28to disappear as they grow.
36:30The black and white
36:30streamlined adults are what
36:31we're all used to seeing.
36:33Particularly when they go
36:34from juvenile to adult,
36:35when they go from scruffy
36:36malt to fledge, it's a big
36:38transition in their
36:39appearance.
36:40Yeah.
36:42So Kalani, we've had
36:43Einstein in now for how
36:44long?
36:45From December.
36:46And you can really see the
36:47difference between him and
36:48the older adults in just how
36:51he looks.
36:52That's what we call like a
36:53baby blue at this stage.
36:54They have a blue twinge to
36:56the colour.
36:58It's incredible how much
36:59they eat for babies.
37:01And the problem here with
37:02this guy, there's no
37:02table manners.
37:03Told you.
37:06This one is one year old.
37:08And this one is Timmy.
37:09Change from baby blue to
37:11a juvenile and then he's
37:13got to get rid of these
37:14old feathers.
37:15If you check on his
37:15flipper, here, this is
37:17black.
37:17This is all new now.
37:18Yeah.
37:19He's got to push out the
37:21new feathers for the first
37:21time.
37:22Then he's going to be
37:23black and white.
37:24Then we'll call him adult.
37:26But they do look really
37:27scruffy and messy when
37:29they're on the malt.
37:30And also this is really
37:31stressful this time of life
37:32for them, isn't it?
37:33I think it's like they
37:33understand they're really
37:34looking scruffy.
37:35So scruffy from people.
37:38But the babies have to eat
37:39a heck of a lot.
37:40And this guy can take up to
37:4212 fish now.
37:43There's 24 fish a bit.
37:44Gosh, he's actually huge.
37:45We have to check.
37:46So they really try to eat
37:47as much as they can so that
37:49they are able to store that
37:50body fat.
37:52And then it's just about
37:53eat, rest, and play.
38:00We have a swimming pool,
38:01but with weaker current
38:02rates.
38:03So in order to get the
38:04strength of the bird up.
38:10They don't have the
38:11environmental pressures.
38:12They don't have to survive
38:13anything.
38:13They're just being sort of
38:14given the best quality of
38:16life.
38:21But of course, being wild is
38:23their instinct.
38:24And eventually, when they get
38:25the confidence to swim off
38:26again, it's just the most
38:27remarkably rewarding thing to
38:29see.
38:31So this is what we do to be
38:33able to release as many
38:34birds back into the wild and
38:36give them a chance.
38:37So for me, that's always the
38:38most exciting is being able to
38:40return them to their homes.
38:54Over in the Eastern Cape, vet
38:56Annie is trying to prep a female
38:57rhino that needs relocating.
39:01After splitting up to search for
39:02the rhino, boss Will is en route
39:04as Annie and her team are
39:06struggling to stop the rhino
39:07heading for a steep drop which
39:08lays just ahead.
39:11With Will arriving, his truck is
39:14quickly used to tether the rope
39:16to the rhino.
39:17If we take this rope, we're
39:18going to swing her away from
39:19the ravine.
39:21Quickly.
39:21We need to push her over this
39:23way.
39:24Just watch your feet.
39:26Right.
39:27Great.
39:28More pushing.
39:30Please.
39:32Great.
39:33Okay, let's just keep her
39:34here.
39:35As they successfully steer her
39:36away, the anaesthetic finally
39:38kicks in.
39:42Okay, let's start getting these
39:43treatments in.
39:46Some strong guys.
39:48The team do blood tests and
39:49health checks and cool the rhino
39:51down.
39:54Needing to now get the two-ton
39:55rhino up, a small amount of
39:57reversal drug is given to wake
39:59her.
40:02Good girl.
40:03Here we go.
40:12She did load, she walked really
40:14nicely onto the truck and she
40:16travelled very well.
40:18It's a short trip back to the
40:19other side of the reserve where
40:21her former friends are waiting.
40:29They definitely know something's
40:31going on.
40:33They're quite curious things.
40:49It was not without its little hiccups
40:52along the way.
40:53It's part of what makes our life
40:54interesting.
40:55And even in those situations, we
40:57always learn something.
40:59These are dinosaurs.
41:00You won't see them anywhere else in
41:01the world.
41:02These animals won't live 10 years
41:05from now if we don't protect them.
41:06But they are the most incredible
41:08species that I've ever worked with.
41:09With a species under the pressure
41:11that they're in now, it's not going to
41:13be easy.
41:13We know the going is getting tough
41:15and the crime is certainly knocking
41:17on their door all the time.
41:20So imagine one day maybe your
41:22grandchildren are vets.
41:24You say, once upon a time, I worked
41:27with an animal that is now extinct.
41:28It would be a very sad thing.
41:31So that's what we're fighting hard to
41:33save.
41:33Great.
41:34Well done.
41:37Yeah, there's some rough roads ahead
41:39for rhino, sadly.
41:43Yeah.
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