Nature (1982–…): Season 34, Episode 13 - Animal Reunions - full transcript
Animal Reunions have captured the imaginations of millions of people worldwide. YouTube is full of animal reunion stories - moments that illustrate and capture genuine affection and emotion between and among species. These rare moments provide a fleeting window into the emotional capacities of animals and their ability to form bonds with humans. But can wild animals really feel joy, devotion and love? Most animal lovers are convinced that they do, and now scientists are beginning to agree as we discover the stories that bring those animal emotions to life. We meet orphaned elephants in Kenya who have learned to trust their nursery keepers even after they lost their families at the hand of man - and witness a deep bond revealed as the head keeper travels to the National Park to see if his fully grown elephants remember him. We meet Damian Aspinall, the first man to release a captive-bred family of gorillas back to the wild, and see his reunion with one of those gorillas, proving a bond that may last a lifetime. We also meet Jane Goodall, the legendary chimpanzee researcher who was once heavily criticized for her claims about animal emotions; and Rebeca Atencia, the veterinarian who runs a Congolese chimp sanctuary set up by Goodall, as she travels to find the orphan chimpanzee she raised and released back into the wild. Through these incredible stories about human-animal relationships, illuminated by interviews with some of the world's most eminent ethologists and academics, this film sets out to question not only the emotional intelligence of animals but the so-called divide between us and them.
♪♪
We hold the bonds
of family and friendship
as a sacred trust.
The same care that we
give to our human children
is the same that we give
to the baby elephants.
So it's like having
a newborn baby.
You develop trust with a gorilla
the same way you
develop trust with a human.
You give it
unconditional kindness,
unconditional love.
You treat it as an equal.
But can a truly wild creature
feel affection for us?
We're about to put some
very intriguing relationships
to the test.
I'm going to get out now,
and I'm just going to go
lie down to the side here
and then see how it plays out.
We are going to reunite
some remarkable old friends...
I honestly didn't know how
Kwibi was going to react.
And see what happens next.
♪♪
As part of the natural world,
humans harbor
an instinctive desire
to connect with
nature, to bridge the gap
between us and the
creatures that live wild.
What types of relationships
can we build with wild animals?
What kinds of
bonds are possible?
And can animals respond in kind?
By exploring reunions
between people and animals
who have had deep
emotional connections,
we may discover how other
species connect with us.
♪♪
Come on! Come on, then!
Come on!
Damian Aspinall, a
maverick conservationist,
is on the search
for an old friend.
Kwibi the gorilla
was born in captivity
but was released
back into the wild.
Now, after five years apart,
Damian has traveled to Gabon
in the hope of
reuniting with him.
Come on, then!
Whoo-whee!
I went up and down the river,
I guess, for about
an hour or so,
calling Kwibi.
Come on! Come on, then!
But I was very intrigued
to try and find him.
I wanted to see if
he was doing okay.
Just as I was about to
give up, he appeared.
But is this
the gentle gorilla
Damian once knew?
And will he remember his friend?
♪♪
Kwibi's journey
began in rural England.
It's here that Damian Aspinall,
a millionaire entrepreneur,
runs Howletts Wildlife Park.
This 90-acre animal sanctuary
is open to the public,
but Damian is
reluctant to call it a zoo.
Oh, yes.
The ethos of Howletts
is so different to
other institutions.
I mean, first of all, we
absolutely put the animal first.
In most collections,
you know, you'd have an
animal that would be on show,
but here, you know,
they can be out the back
and they wouldn't be on show.
But this is not
about the public.
I don't give a damn
about the public.
I give a damn about the animals.
More controversially,
Damian sees all the
animals in his care as friends.
If you can reach a stage
where you have a relationship
like this with a wild animal,
a black rhino, who
has faith and trust
and will effectively...
look... Fall asleep
under my care and touch,
you know, there's no
greater compliment.
And she's not trained
and she's not tamed or...
It's just love.
We love and nurture
these animals,
and then, wherever
we can, try and return
some of these animals
back to the wild.
Damian's passion stems
from an unusual childhood...
Growing up in the wonderland
of his father's private zoo.
♪♪
Animals played a
huge role in my life.
I grew up with animals
all around me in the house,
and I've had a sort of
deep affection for animals
as long as I can remember.
I was drawn to many animals,
but gorillas are so human-like.
So it's probably possible
to have a closer
bond with a gorilla
than it may be with
a rhino or a tiger.
You develop trust with a gorilla
the same way you
develop trust with a human.
You give it
unconditional kindness,
unconditional love,
and you don't try and
be the dominant partner.
You treat it as an equal.
If they want to be left
alone, they'll let you know.
If they're feeling
very affectionate,
they'll let you know.
Many of the gorillas at Howletts
are the offspring of those
Damian knew as a boy.
And as Damian grew
up, he began to feel
that keeping his animals
friends in captivity was wrong.
I've always felt in my heart
that they have an absolute right
to have their chance
to live in the wild
and their progeny
to live free in the wild,
as long as they're protected.
In 2003, Damian chose
Kwibi and six others
to be some of the first
captive-born gorillas
to attempt life in the wild.
The first time I
would've met Kwibi,
he would've been
a tiny little baby.
I had a good bond with Kwibi.
He was a sweet-natured
gorilla, and that's half the battle.
But gorillas in the wild
have a very different life.
For seven juvenile gorillas
to make the leap from
captivity to the wild
would be an enormous challenge,
and many people
thought it couldn't be done.
When we release the
animals back into the wild,
critics will say, "Oh,
they haven't got a chance.
They've been, you
know, domesticized."
Well, first of all, they're
not domesticated at all.
These animals have a right
to have their chance
to live in the wild.
So people always
underestimate them.
"Oh, they won't learn
to live in the wild."
Well, how do you
know they won't learn
to live in the wild
unless you try?
After doing all he could
to prepare the gorillas
for the wilds of Africa,
the time came for
Damian and his family
to say farewell to
Kwibi and his friends.
You can wave
them off, sweetheart,
but you say your goodbyes now.
Okay.
Bye-bye!
Bye-bye.
I've got to go.
You know, I'm sad
to see my friends go,
but that's entirely selfish,
and I'm actually much
happier in my heart
that they're out there.
We have really no right
to keep them in captivity.
The gorillas were
flown, 3,500 miles
to the million-acre Batéké
Plateau National Park
in Gabon, West Africa.
The gorillas were
greeted by a new team,
appointed by Damian,
to begin their introduction.
The last to step into this
new and unknown world
was Kwibi.
The gorillas were
introduced slowly,
starting out in a wooden house
and spending their
days in the forest
until they were ready
to leave for good.
Over the following years,
Kwibi and his group grew strong
and were adapting well
to their new environment.
We got daily updates.
And as he grew up, he got bolder
and became more independent.
And whenever he was seen,
he seemed healthy and happy.
But in 2010, the staff
became concerned
after Kwibi, who was now a
10-year-old territorial male,
became aggressive
and difficult to track.
Dominant gorillas can
become reasonably aggressive
or very aggressive with humans,
because they see
them as a threat.
So he started to
become quite tricky
with some human contact.
When Damian heard the news,
he traveled to Gabon.
Come on! Come on, then!
Come on!
He hadn't seen
Kwibi for five years.
He had no idea if
they could find him,
and if they did, how
Kwibi would respond.
After hours of searching...
Kwibi appeared on the riverbank.
I was apprehensive.
I honestly didn't know how
Kwibi was going to react.
In case the situation erupts,
a plan is put in place to
distract Kwibi with food.
Throw food if it kicks off.
After 5 years apart,
Damian approaches Kwibi,
unsure of what
might happen next.
I could hear his love gurgle...
and I knew that he would
be fine with me then.
All his mannerisms
and vocalizations
was one of someone so
happy to see his old friend.
I was saying, "Lovely to
see you, too, my old friend,"
letting him know
that I was equally joyed
to see him as he was me.
I remember sitting
there with him,
holding him and him holding
me, and passing each other leaves.
It was lovely to see that...
That our bond was so strong.
It was all rather beautiful.
Then, Kwibi's wives approached.
A very proud moment for Kwibi
when he sort of introduced
me to all his wives.
The female gorillas
would have only come
close if he was okay with it.
Otherwise, he would
have kept them away.
Of course, when it
was time to leave,
it was very sweet when
he was holding on to me.
Can you bring me
over a sleeping bag?
But the reunion
didn't end there.
I got back into the boat
and went for three or
four miles back to camp.
You know, I knew
he was following us,
and that night, I
could hear his calls.
I went for a swim
in the morning.
There he was, at the
edge of the riverbank,
coming to see his old friend.
Kwibi!
Who's a lovely boy?
I can see you.
I think the formation
of these really strong, enduring
social bonds across species
has the same explanation
as bonds within species.
It's the shared emotions.
It's the empathy.
It's the understanding what
another animal is feeling.
It's the stimulus
that's just deeply engrained
in their head and their heart.
There's a heart issue there,
because they would not
show it to just anyone.
I'll come and see
you tomorrow, okay?
People who want to have
a more objective look at
this particular interaction
will accuse us of
anthropomorphizing,
of saying, "Well,
you're suggesting
that those animals
feel the way that you do,
and you have no
evidence for that,
because you're
not those animals.
You really don't
know how they feel."
I don't think anyone would say
that the animals aren't
feeling something.
But are they experiencing it
in the way that we experience
when we use the word "love"?
Humans are often surprised
by how much emotional
capacity animals have.
But I think a lot of animals
have the same range as humans.
There's as much
a desire for a bond
for a gorilla with
a human friend
as a human
friend with a gorilla.
Damian's reunion with Kwibi
appears to be based on a
shared emotional connection.
But the idea that animals
even have emotions
was once controversial.
In the 1950s, Jane Goodall
was one of the first scientists
to build relationships
with wild animals
and also to show how those
bonds could advance science.
Her studies of chimpanzees
changed the way we thought
about the emotional
capacities of animals.
I found that it was
really important
to establish a
trusting relationship
with the chimpanzees
when I first arrived,
because, otherwise, I
wouldn't have been able
to observe them.
Jane spent weeks
catching only fleeting
glimpses of chimpanzees.
But eventually, she noticed
one chimp who was
unlike the others.
Fortunately, one of them,
whom I named David Greybeard...
Very distinctive,
beautiful white beard,
and for some odd reason,
he was more trusting
than the others,
right from the beginning.
It was David who first began
to allow me to approach
more closely in the wild.
It was almost as
though, in this way,
he introduced me to his
companions in the forest.
With access
to the previously hidden
world of chimpanzees,
Jane began observing
things no one had ever seen.
As I got to know them,
I began to describe the
kind of behavior I saw.
It was so clear
when they were sad,
when they were content,
and when they were angry.
They have emotions.
But when Jane
reported her findings
back to her
university professors,
she was met with ridicule.
I was told I'd done
everything wrong.
First of all, I should have
given the chimpanzees numbers
rather than names,
because that was
more scientific.
Secondly, I couldn't talk
about them having personalities
and certainly not emotions,
because those were
unique to the human animal.
For all their
scientific know-how,
I knew that the professors
were actually wrong.
Jane's relationship with David
Greybeard and the chimps
reconnected us with our
closest animal relatives
and shaped a new
way of thinking.
She gave chimpanzees
their biographies, their lives,
and it didn't just
stop at chimpanzees.
It extended to every
animal on the earth.
This whole area of
animal minds and emotions
that had really been forbidden,
she opened it to all of us.
Jane's pioneering work
broke down the barriers
between wild animals and humans.
And today, people are
pursuing relationships
with even the most
unlikely creatures.
In Zimbabwe, wildlife
cameraman Kim Wolhuter
wanted to get closer than anyone
to the fastest mammal
on earth... the cheetah.
♪♪
I'm right there.
Seeing it from a perspective
that nobody else
has ever seen before,
and I'm able to film it in a
way that people can now
actually feel what it's
like to be a cheetah.
Kim is a third-generation
bushranger,
who grew up surrounded
by Africa's most iconic wildlife.
But as a filmmaker, he wanted
to get even closer to animals
to experience them as they are.
To be accepted by the
notoriously skittish cheetah,
Kim first had to find a
way to build a relationship.
♪♪
Trust is crucial
to any bond you want to
develop with these guys.
Unless you can get their
trust, you won't do anything,
and to build that
trust takes time.
The first six months
is getting them sort
of used to the vehicle.
The next six months is
you're out of the vehicle.
The following six months is
getting to actually
start bonding with them.
And the last six months
is pure and utter bliss,
where you've got
this amazing bond
and you're just
seeing everything
as natural as it can be,
because they're
so trusting of you
and they've got
nothing to worry about.
No one had ever tried
to film this close to a
wild cheetah before.
And after 18 months
of persistence,
she allowed Kim into her world.
♪♪
I was getting some
amazing shots.
Oh, it was great and it
was just a lovely time.
♪♪
But then suddenly,
out of the blue,
she disappeared.
Kim spent months
searching the
Malilangwe Reserve...
but there was no sign of her...
until he got a call from
one of the park rangers.
About six months later,
one of the guides
called on the radio
to say that he had
found this cheetah.
When Kim finally
caught up with her,
he saw she'd been
missing for good reason.
There's five of them.
It's been six months
since Kim last saw her.
But even as a new mother,
she accepts his presence.
If it wasn't for the mother,
who I've worked with before,
there's no ways I'd be allowed
this close to these
little guys, eh?
They're still a bit wobbly
on their legs, huh?
It's exceptional
to be allowed to get this
close to cheetah cubs.
And now Kim wants to see
how far the mother's
trust extends.
I'm going to get out now
and see how... how they react,
but I'm not going to walk
straight towards them.
I'm just going to go and
lie down to the side here
and then see how it plays out.
Yeah, hopefully, the cubs
will take their cue from her,
and if she remains
chilled, they will.
Kim is cautious.
Wild cheetahs can be highly
protective of their young.
It could all change
in an instant.
♪♪
In an attempt to
appear unthreatening,
Kim lies down.
♪♪
And in a sign of trust,
so does the mother.
The cubs are now
free to explore.
♪♪
This one little cub
crawled between my
legs, on to my stomach.
He's climbing all over me here.
And it was... Yeah,
it was amazing.
This is a totally wild cheetah.
I just thought it
was incredible.
Why did she let me
do that? It was insane.
It's a bond that
just is so special.
It's... It's incredible.
And the trust is... Well,
that's what it's all about.
It all comes down to trust.
It was incredibly special.
That's the reason
why I do what I do.
It's those special moments.
This remarkable trust
between one man
and one wild predator
was so complete
that the mother
extended it to her cubs.
Maternal protection is vital
to the survival of animals,
and the maternal bond so strong
that without it,
offspring can die.
The fundamental
bond in all mammals
is between the
mother and her child.
And so that's sort of where
we begin to first
experience feelings of love,
as an attachment to our mother.
And then we
want to go on in life
and form similar attachments.
Emotions are certainly
very essential to survival.
I don't see how animals
can take care of their offspring
if there's not a bond there.
When wild animals
lose their mothers,
humans can take on the
role of surrogate parent.
How is this vital
bond re-created?
And when the animal is
introduced back into the wild,
can the bond survive?
In Congo, the Jane
Goodall Institute's
Tchimpounga Chimpanzee
Rehabilitation Center
is home to over 100
orphaned chimpanzees,
many born in the wild.
But they're all in desperate
need of one thing...
A mother's love.
The orphan chimpanzees
that come to our sanctuaries,
they've been traumatized,
they've lost their mothers,
they're very often wounded.
It's absolutely essential
that they do see their caregiver
as a sort of surrogate mother.
Allez. Allez, allez, allez.
Dr. Rebeca Atencia is a vet
with 15 years of experience
caring for sick and
orphaned chimpanzees.
Her aim is to raise and
nurture them back to the wild.
These mornings are just great.
To see how they
go to the forest,
they just walk through
the savanna with us,
playing and playing like
in the wild, you know?
Hey.
Once they reach
the forest playground,
it's breakfast time.
In the wild, a chimp
relies on its mother's milk
until it's about 5 years old.
We want to have healthy chimps,
that they develop normal
behavior like in the wild.
And for that, they
need to play every day.
They need to enjoy.
They need to just be
babies like they are now.
Chimpanzees share 98%
of their DNA with humans.
And just like us,
one of the best ways
to learn is through play.
Hey.
These little ones
don't just need food
and a safe place to learn.
There's one thing they're
missing more than anything.
At that time of their life,
their mother is the
center of their life.
It's everything for them.
The child is suckling,
riding the mother's back,
sleeping with her at night
until the age of 5... 5 years.
So the mother-infant
bond in chimpanzee society
is absolutely,
desperately important.
And for the caregivers,
replacing that love
is like becoming a
mother themselves.
This relationship is like
a maternal relationship.
They feel that
it's their support
for the rest of their life.
If something is going to happen
and that person is around,
they feel at home
because that person
is part of their family.
One chimp Rebeca formed
a special relationship with
arrived at the sanctuary
nine years ago.
She'd lost her
parents to poachers
and was severely malnourished.
She had that lost
look in her eyes.
She was confused.
We gave her a big mango,
and she was eating
and eating and eating
and not stop eating.
Kudia, it means "to
eat" in local language.
And we said, "Okay, we know
already her name... Kudia."
Kudia was raised in
Rebeca's care day and night.
The two became inseparable.
I just took her with
me and I hug her.
She was lost for all this time
and she was afraid of everybody,
and suddenly,
she found her adoptive
mother, and it was me.
The mother-infant relationship
is one of the strongest
and most highly evolved.
And there's some people
who actually believe
that that is the root
of all the bonding
and compassion and empathy
that we see among animals.
They really believe
that it's basically born,
if you will, in the
mother-infant bond.
They're brought into this
very loving environment
and a person cares
for them, feeds them,
does everything for them
that their mothers
would have done.
The most natural
sort of response
is to be completely
attached to that individual.
Rebeca and her cameraman
husband, Fernando,
spent seven years
watching Kudia grow
from strength to strength,
and soon it was time to
send her back to the wild.
I was happy for her.
I knew that she would
be great in the forest.
She will be like
a real wild chimp.
But I was afraid of what
is going to happen to her.
At the end, they
are like your children.
They are part of your life.
Rebeca is heading out
to a remote river island,
which has been home to
Kudia for the last two years,
in the hope of a reunion.
As a vet, she wants to
make sure Kudia is healthy
and adapting
to life in the wild.
And as a mother, she just
wants to see her baby again.
When you are in
the life of somebody
for so many years, you
have this connection,
and she's part of my life,
you know, part of my family.
Living on the island keeps
Kudia safe from poachers.
But she's far from alone.
The Congo's rivers and
forests can be deadly.
There are 20 other
chimps on Kudia's island...
and the older males in
particular can be aggressive.
It is very possible
that a chimpanzee
in a specific situation
can kill somebody.
A question of minutes.
Okay, we need to get ready,
and we'll go to the chimps.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Until they know it's safe,
Fernando, Rebeca's
cameraman husband,
will take over the filming.
We think that Kudia is around,
that we are going
to... Fernando and me,
we are going down to try
to check if Kudia is here.
Back.
I am nervous.
I don't know what
she's going to do.
How is she going to
show that she knows me?
This bond that we started
when she was young...
Still there or not?
I don't know what
is going to happen,
and it's like a mystery.
Allez, allez, allez!
Kudia.
Allez, allez, allez.
Sure enough,
there's movement
up in the tree canopy.
The chimps know
they have visitors.
And then a familiar face.
Kudia.
♪♪
♪♪
It's a cautious first encounter.
After two years, does Kudia
even want to reconnect?
But like any mother,
Rebeca doesn't give up easily.
Oh.
♪♪
Oh.
In her gentle way,
Kudia leads Rebeca
towards a clearing.
And then, acceptance turns
to unmistakable affection.
This is so natural,
the way that she's just putting
her hand on my shoulder.
She's just touching my skin,
and she's so sweet in
the way that she does that.
She's trying to show
me that she has love.
Over an hour passes
with Kudia seemingly content
just to be close to Rebeca.
♪♪
Kudia, what's
happening with you?
♪♪
Convinced she's
happy and healthy
in her new wild paradise,
it's nearly time to say goodbye.
When you live with chimpanzees,
and you are part of their group
and you are part
of their family,
you start to see how
close they are to us
and how close we are to them.
You understand
that they feel love.
Bye, Kudia.
Hoot, hoot.
♪♪
We call it love
between two humans,
so there's no reason
not to call it love
between a non-human and a human.
Love, like all emotions, has
a physiological foundation.
It originates in the brain.
All mammals share
the same structures
in what's called
the limbic system
that underlie emotions.
There's a little almond-shaped
structure called the amygdala.
We all have it,
and it works to generate
feelings of emotions
across mammals.
We're not the only creatures
whose brains are
hard-wired for emotional lives.
And along with many mammals,
we also share hormones
released during
social interactions
that generate feelings
of trust and love.
The feeling of love is
triggered by oxytocin,
this chemical that's
released in our bodies.
Other animals have it.
We may not be able to say
exactly what they are feeling.
But is the chemical
being expressed?
Yes.
If mammals share
similar brain chemistry
and are primed to have
emotional lives like us,
can we use this
knowledge to help them?
It's dawn at Nairobi's
David Sheldrake Wildlife
Trust elephant orphanage.
Head keeper Edwin
Lusichi has spent 16 years
rescuing orphaned elephants
and sending them back to the wild.
When the orphans
come in the nursery,
some of them come in in
very, very poor conditions.
All their bodies malnourished.
They've not had
food for a long time.
No water.
They're just seriously
starving to death.
Edwin trained to be a priest,
but when he came
to the Nairobi nursery,
he found his true calling
and never looked back.
I believe I have a special gift
for working with elephants,
because sometimes I
really don't understand.
Some of the new
elephants who come in,
touching them or coming
close to them for the first time,
they just accept me.
Edwin's sensitivity to
the animals is crucial.
Nearly 100 elephants are killed
by poachers every day in Africa.
The babies not only witness
the violent attacks
on their families,
they're often left having
to fend for themselves.
When the rescued orphans arrive,
they're often too
frightened of people
to accept the keepers' help.
So Edwin and his
team have to find ways
to build relationships
with the elephants
before they can treat
them, care for them,
and feed them back to health.
The same care that we
give to our human children
is the same that we give
to the baby elephants.
So it's like having
a newborn baby.
These babies don't just
need to be nursed
back to health physically.
If their mothers were
killed by poachers
and they saw it happen,
they are emotionally
or seriously stressed
and traumatized.
These elephants are
family-oriented animals,
so we have to be
part of their family.
We have to show them love.
But how do you build
a loving relationship
with an elephant?
A lot of touch is
showing affection,
because they feel
very, very comfortable
when you touch them around.
Okay, there you are.
When they suck on your fingers,
they just feel very relaxed
and very affectionate.
And being close to them
and the positive
thoughts about them
helps them to heal
from all the trauma,
from all the stress
they have encountered.
Over time, the
elephants show signs
that they are embracing Edwin
and that a strong
bond is forming.
We do get love back
from the elephants,
because we see
how they react to us...
Wanting to sniff us everywhere,
putting their trunk
all around our body.
So we see the love coming
back from the elephants.
Some people might
find it surprising
that animals who have
been traumatized with humans
still form bonds with them.
I think they're
reading the human,
and at some point,
they're going,
"I can trust you."
And then, once
they form this trust,
the doors are wide-open
to forming a very strong,
deep, and long-lasting bond.
These bonds of trust
form the basis of
their social skills,
which will be essential
when they reintegrate
into wild herds.
One pioneering ethologist
knows just how complex
their social lives are.
In Amboseli National
Park in Kenya,
renowned wildlife
biologist Cynthia Moss
set out on what would become
the longest continuous
study of elephants.
The project in Amboseli
has been running since 1972.
We've been following over
3,000 elephants over that time.
We know every
animal individually,
and we follow individual
lives from birth to death.
She soon discovered
that elephants have
one of the most highly
developed social lives
in the animal kingdom.
In my studies, I've shown
that there's five levels
of social organization.
The base is the family unit,
and that consists of
females and their calves.
And then families have
special relationships
with other families,
and those are
called bond groups.
And then we have a clan,
which is maybe made
up of 10 or more families.
They're interacting
and intermingling.
Often, there's a whole meeting
and aggregating
and breaking down.
It's called a
fission-fusion society.
Cynthia also observed
how excited they can be
when family members reunite.
When they come
back together again,
there is inevitably a
wonderful greeting ceremony
where they run
together, you know,
already trumpeting and
rumbling and screaming.
And then they come together,
and they click their tusks
and entwine their trunks
and spin around and urinate
and defecate and everything,
and that's what we call
the greeting ceremony.
And that is just a
very joyful thing.
Back in Nairobi, it's
bedtime at the nursery.
The keepers sleep
in with the orphans,
spending each night
with a different elephant,
to prevent the orphans
from becoming too attached.
For Edwin and the keepers,
it's one long
process of letting go.
When the elephants
graduate from the nursery
and they go to be
reintroduced back into the wild,
yes, I miss them,
but I feel a lot
and a lot of joy,
to see them go
back into the wild.
And so that is the
happiest moment in my life,
despite the missing them.
Tomorrow, Edwin will
embark on a journey
that he hopes will reunite him
with elephants he has missed
ever since they
left the orphanage.
One of them is Naipoki,
who was just 3 months
old when she was rescued.
It was sad, it was painful.
And I concentrated a lot
on just making
sure that she's okay.
She was one of my favorites
when she was in the nursery.
So friendly, very playful.
Another of his favorites,
called Lempaute,
was rescued 10 years
ago from the roadside
after losing her mother.
She was a very,
very cheeky elephant
from the beginning.
Very, very cheeky and
sometimes very naughty.
This is Tsavo East National Park
in southern Kenya,
home to 12,000 wild elephants.
It's here that Edwin's
orphans are transferred
to begin their
reintroduction into the wild.
The orphans are growing up fast.
Naipoki, Lempaute,
and the others
are learning to rely
less on the keepers
and more on each other.
♪♪
When they are happy like now,
they are healing
psychologically,
because when they came in,
they were very much traumatized
and they were given
that love by the keepers.
So with their fellow orphans,
they usually team
up in groups of friends
and they have some
socializing and happy games.
So this will keep them busy.
They will forget their
bad and terrible past
and they get their life back.
Edwin has not seen his
ex-orphans in over a year.
He's eager to reunite
with Naipoki and Lempaute
and discover whether
they remember him.
Very exciting.
I just want to see how
they're progressing.
Now in Tsavo,
he's just minutes away
from seeing his old friends.
Being reunited
with the elephants,
it is like meeting an
old longtime friend
or meeting an old
longtime family.
That excitement
is what I'm here for.
But now that Edwin's
babies have grown up,
will they remember him?
And now that they've
bonded as a herd,
will they care?
Edwin has spent his
life working with them,
and even he has no
idea how they'll react.
But then...
Hello, Naipoki.
Hello, Naipoki.
How are you doing, Naipoki?
How are you? Do you remember me?
It's good.
I can see you
have big tusks now,
becoming a big girl.
They've been apart
for almost two years.
But it's clear
Naipoki remembers.
I hope you're fine.
You happy to see me?
I'm happy to see you.
Naipoki.
Don't put my head in your mouth.
Don't put my head in your mouth.
Naipoki is showing all the
signs of elephant happiness.
But then, an older
female breaks up the party.
Lempaute. Lempaute.
Lempaute, don't.
Lempaute, Lempaute.
It's another of Edwin's
orphans, Lempaute.
She was always the
unpredictable one.
And she hasn't seen
Edwin in over a year.
You remember me now?
Is this aggression, or
could it be jealousy?
You don't need to push.
You now remember me again?
You now want to be with me?
She wants to show
Edwin a bit of love herself.
Mm-hmm?
Now I can see you remember.
You are big, big, big, big.
I just feel so happy
to be in the middle
of all these elephants,
all with their trunk around
me, touching and smelling.
It's a sign that
they remember me.
It's a way of rekindling.
It's almost like a
handshake in humans.
They're just taking in the odor.
They're taking in the
sight and the sound.
It's like, "Wow, it's you.
Wow, it's really you."
There is a long
memory in those animals
of their caretaker,
of the person that
they loved and trusted.
And that just is not erased.
You know, that, I don't think,
is probably ever forgotten.
It is a big, big part
of my family reunion.
And I'm happy to be reunited
with them after some long time.
But this reunion
is also a goodbye.
Soon, these elephants
will bond with wild herds
and leave the keepers for good.
Another farewell, two
years ago, raised questions
about the depths of an
animal's emotional awareness.
Jane Goodall traveled
to the Republic of Congo
for the release of an orphaned
chimpanzee... Wounda.
She'd been very sick.
And I met her when she'd
recovered from her sickness.
And it was decided
to release her
onto this beautiful
Tchindzoulou Island.
It was very exciting.
During the one-hour boat ride,
Jane did her best to
soothe the distressed animal.
I was sitting just
outside the cage,
and she must have been,
you know, "Where am I going?
What's happening? Is
this a boat? This is new."
So I was kind of talking
to her through the bars
and trying to reassure her
that it was going
to be wonderful,
and communicating,
mostly silently.
The team arrived on
Tchindzoulou Island.
With Jane was Wounda's
caregiver, Rebeca.
Then, when we opened
the bars of the cage
and she came out,
then climbed up on
the top of the cage,
we didn't know what she'd do.
And her caregivers that
she knows are around her.
And then she turned
and she looked
directly into my eyes.
And then this extraordinary
thing happened.
And it went on and on. It
wasn't just a quick embrace.
It was unbelievably
moving. We all were crying.
Though she had known
Jane Goodall for just an hour,
Wounda seemed to
perceive something special
in this singular human being.
One of the guys said,
"How did Wounda know
that that lady was the one
responsible for all of this?"
Which, of course,
she didn't know.
If you want to say Wounda
was saying thank you,
that's fine.
Who knows, really?
But it was an indication
of an incredible bond.
Wounda shows us
that animals can initiate
relationships with humans.
But what lies behind
their motivation
still captivates us.
What Wounda was saying
to me with that embrace,
none of us know.
I have absolutely no idea.
Even after decades of study,
animals still evoke profound
questions and wonder.
We want to know what
animals think and feel.
Now we have people
who are going out there
and they're answering
these questions for us.
They're bringing back this
information from this frontier.
It's a wonderful time.
And as our
understanding develops,
these provocative
reunions may help us
to see animals in
a whole new light.
I think these reunions
are wonderful examples
of these enduring bonds.
They're part of
who the animal is.
They're in the animal's
heart. They really are.
People are amazed
that they're, you know,
they're so emotional,
that they have these...
This ability to love.
These reunions show how
companionship, trust, love,
and maternal bonds
are characteristics that
many species share.
Emotional connections may be
as important to animals
as they are to us.
♪♪
To learn more about what you've
seen on this "Nature" program,
♪♪
We hold the bonds
of family and friendship
as a sacred trust.
The same care that we
give to our human children
is the same that we give
to the baby elephants.
So it's like having
a newborn baby.
You develop trust with a gorilla
the same way you
develop trust with a human.
You give it
unconditional kindness,
unconditional love.
You treat it as an equal.
But can a truly wild creature
feel affection for us?
We're about to put some
very intriguing relationships
to the test.
I'm going to get out now,
and I'm just going to go
lie down to the side here
and then see how it plays out.
We are going to reunite
some remarkable old friends...
I honestly didn't know how
Kwibi was going to react.
And see what happens next.
♪♪
As part of the natural world,
humans harbor
an instinctive desire
to connect with
nature, to bridge the gap
between us and the
creatures that live wild.
What types of relationships
can we build with wild animals?
What kinds of
bonds are possible?
And can animals respond in kind?
By exploring reunions
between people and animals
who have had deep
emotional connections,
we may discover how other
species connect with us.
♪♪
Come on! Come on, then!
Come on!
Damian Aspinall, a
maverick conservationist,
is on the search
for an old friend.
Kwibi the gorilla
was born in captivity
but was released
back into the wild.
Now, after five years apart,
Damian has traveled to Gabon
in the hope of
reuniting with him.
Come on, then!
Whoo-whee!
I went up and down the river,
I guess, for about
an hour or so,
calling Kwibi.
Come on! Come on, then!
But I was very intrigued
to try and find him.
I wanted to see if
he was doing okay.
Just as I was about to
give up, he appeared.
But is this
the gentle gorilla
Damian once knew?
And will he remember his friend?
♪♪
Kwibi's journey
began in rural England.
It's here that Damian Aspinall,
a millionaire entrepreneur,
runs Howletts Wildlife Park.
This 90-acre animal sanctuary
is open to the public,
but Damian is
reluctant to call it a zoo.
Oh, yes.
The ethos of Howletts
is so different to
other institutions.
I mean, first of all, we
absolutely put the animal first.
In most collections,
you know, you'd have an
animal that would be on show,
but here, you know,
they can be out the back
and they wouldn't be on show.
But this is not
about the public.
I don't give a damn
about the public.
I give a damn about the animals.
More controversially,
Damian sees all the
animals in his care as friends.
If you can reach a stage
where you have a relationship
like this with a wild animal,
a black rhino, who
has faith and trust
and will effectively...
look... Fall asleep
under my care and touch,
you know, there's no
greater compliment.
And she's not trained
and she's not tamed or...
It's just love.
We love and nurture
these animals,
and then, wherever
we can, try and return
some of these animals
back to the wild.
Damian's passion stems
from an unusual childhood...
Growing up in the wonderland
of his father's private zoo.
♪♪
Animals played a
huge role in my life.
I grew up with animals
all around me in the house,
and I've had a sort of
deep affection for animals
as long as I can remember.
I was drawn to many animals,
but gorillas are so human-like.
So it's probably possible
to have a closer
bond with a gorilla
than it may be with
a rhino or a tiger.
You develop trust with a gorilla
the same way you
develop trust with a human.
You give it
unconditional kindness,
unconditional love,
and you don't try and
be the dominant partner.
You treat it as an equal.
If they want to be left
alone, they'll let you know.
If they're feeling
very affectionate,
they'll let you know.
Many of the gorillas at Howletts
are the offspring of those
Damian knew as a boy.
And as Damian grew
up, he began to feel
that keeping his animals
friends in captivity was wrong.
I've always felt in my heart
that they have an absolute right
to have their chance
to live in the wild
and their progeny
to live free in the wild,
as long as they're protected.
In 2003, Damian chose
Kwibi and six others
to be some of the first
captive-born gorillas
to attempt life in the wild.
The first time I
would've met Kwibi,
he would've been
a tiny little baby.
I had a good bond with Kwibi.
He was a sweet-natured
gorilla, and that's half the battle.
But gorillas in the wild
have a very different life.
For seven juvenile gorillas
to make the leap from
captivity to the wild
would be an enormous challenge,
and many people
thought it couldn't be done.
When we release the
animals back into the wild,
critics will say, "Oh,
they haven't got a chance.
They've been, you
know, domesticized."
Well, first of all, they're
not domesticated at all.
These animals have a right
to have their chance
to live in the wild.
So people always
underestimate them.
"Oh, they won't learn
to live in the wild."
Well, how do you
know they won't learn
to live in the wild
unless you try?
After doing all he could
to prepare the gorillas
for the wilds of Africa,
the time came for
Damian and his family
to say farewell to
Kwibi and his friends.
You can wave
them off, sweetheart,
but you say your goodbyes now.
Okay.
Bye-bye!
Bye-bye.
I've got to go.
You know, I'm sad
to see my friends go,
but that's entirely selfish,
and I'm actually much
happier in my heart
that they're out there.
We have really no right
to keep them in captivity.
The gorillas were
flown, 3,500 miles
to the million-acre Batéké
Plateau National Park
in Gabon, West Africa.
The gorillas were
greeted by a new team,
appointed by Damian,
to begin their introduction.
The last to step into this
new and unknown world
was Kwibi.
The gorillas were
introduced slowly,
starting out in a wooden house
and spending their
days in the forest
until they were ready
to leave for good.
Over the following years,
Kwibi and his group grew strong
and were adapting well
to their new environment.
We got daily updates.
And as he grew up, he got bolder
and became more independent.
And whenever he was seen,
he seemed healthy and happy.
But in 2010, the staff
became concerned
after Kwibi, who was now a
10-year-old territorial male,
became aggressive
and difficult to track.
Dominant gorillas can
become reasonably aggressive
or very aggressive with humans,
because they see
them as a threat.
So he started to
become quite tricky
with some human contact.
When Damian heard the news,
he traveled to Gabon.
Come on! Come on, then!
Come on!
He hadn't seen
Kwibi for five years.
He had no idea if
they could find him,
and if they did, how
Kwibi would respond.
After hours of searching...
Kwibi appeared on the riverbank.
I was apprehensive.
I honestly didn't know how
Kwibi was going to react.
In case the situation erupts,
a plan is put in place to
distract Kwibi with food.
Throw food if it kicks off.
After 5 years apart,
Damian approaches Kwibi,
unsure of what
might happen next.
I could hear his love gurgle...
and I knew that he would
be fine with me then.
All his mannerisms
and vocalizations
was one of someone so
happy to see his old friend.
I was saying, "Lovely to
see you, too, my old friend,"
letting him know
that I was equally joyed
to see him as he was me.
I remember sitting
there with him,
holding him and him holding
me, and passing each other leaves.
It was lovely to see that...
That our bond was so strong.
It was all rather beautiful.
Then, Kwibi's wives approached.
A very proud moment for Kwibi
when he sort of introduced
me to all his wives.
The female gorillas
would have only come
close if he was okay with it.
Otherwise, he would
have kept them away.
Of course, when it
was time to leave,
it was very sweet when
he was holding on to me.
Can you bring me
over a sleeping bag?
But the reunion
didn't end there.
I got back into the boat
and went for three or
four miles back to camp.
You know, I knew
he was following us,
and that night, I
could hear his calls.
I went for a swim
in the morning.
There he was, at the
edge of the riverbank,
coming to see his old friend.
Kwibi!
Who's a lovely boy?
I can see you.
I think the formation
of these really strong, enduring
social bonds across species
has the same explanation
as bonds within species.
It's the shared emotions.
It's the empathy.
It's the understanding what
another animal is feeling.
It's the stimulus
that's just deeply engrained
in their head and their heart.
There's a heart issue there,
because they would not
show it to just anyone.
I'll come and see
you tomorrow, okay?
People who want to have
a more objective look at
this particular interaction
will accuse us of
anthropomorphizing,
of saying, "Well,
you're suggesting
that those animals
feel the way that you do,
and you have no
evidence for that,
because you're
not those animals.
You really don't
know how they feel."
I don't think anyone would say
that the animals aren't
feeling something.
But are they experiencing it
in the way that we experience
when we use the word "love"?
Humans are often surprised
by how much emotional
capacity animals have.
But I think a lot of animals
have the same range as humans.
There's as much
a desire for a bond
for a gorilla with
a human friend
as a human
friend with a gorilla.
Damian's reunion with Kwibi
appears to be based on a
shared emotional connection.
But the idea that animals
even have emotions
was once controversial.
In the 1950s, Jane Goodall
was one of the first scientists
to build relationships
with wild animals
and also to show how those
bonds could advance science.
Her studies of chimpanzees
changed the way we thought
about the emotional
capacities of animals.
I found that it was
really important
to establish a
trusting relationship
with the chimpanzees
when I first arrived,
because, otherwise, I
wouldn't have been able
to observe them.
Jane spent weeks
catching only fleeting
glimpses of chimpanzees.
But eventually, she noticed
one chimp who was
unlike the others.
Fortunately, one of them,
whom I named David Greybeard...
Very distinctive,
beautiful white beard,
and for some odd reason,
he was more trusting
than the others,
right from the beginning.
It was David who first began
to allow me to approach
more closely in the wild.
It was almost as
though, in this way,
he introduced me to his
companions in the forest.
With access
to the previously hidden
world of chimpanzees,
Jane began observing
things no one had ever seen.
As I got to know them,
I began to describe the
kind of behavior I saw.
It was so clear
when they were sad,
when they were content,
and when they were angry.
They have emotions.
But when Jane
reported her findings
back to her
university professors,
she was met with ridicule.
I was told I'd done
everything wrong.
First of all, I should have
given the chimpanzees numbers
rather than names,
because that was
more scientific.
Secondly, I couldn't talk
about them having personalities
and certainly not emotions,
because those were
unique to the human animal.
For all their
scientific know-how,
I knew that the professors
were actually wrong.
Jane's relationship with David
Greybeard and the chimps
reconnected us with our
closest animal relatives
and shaped a new
way of thinking.
She gave chimpanzees
their biographies, their lives,
and it didn't just
stop at chimpanzees.
It extended to every
animal on the earth.
This whole area of
animal minds and emotions
that had really been forbidden,
she opened it to all of us.
Jane's pioneering work
broke down the barriers
between wild animals and humans.
And today, people are
pursuing relationships
with even the most
unlikely creatures.
In Zimbabwe, wildlife
cameraman Kim Wolhuter
wanted to get closer than anyone
to the fastest mammal
on earth... the cheetah.
♪♪
I'm right there.
Seeing it from a perspective
that nobody else
has ever seen before,
and I'm able to film it in a
way that people can now
actually feel what it's
like to be a cheetah.
Kim is a third-generation
bushranger,
who grew up surrounded
by Africa's most iconic wildlife.
But as a filmmaker, he wanted
to get even closer to animals
to experience them as they are.
To be accepted by the
notoriously skittish cheetah,
Kim first had to find a
way to build a relationship.
♪♪
Trust is crucial
to any bond you want to
develop with these guys.
Unless you can get their
trust, you won't do anything,
and to build that
trust takes time.
The first six months
is getting them sort
of used to the vehicle.
The next six months is
you're out of the vehicle.
The following six months is
getting to actually
start bonding with them.
And the last six months
is pure and utter bliss,
where you've got
this amazing bond
and you're just
seeing everything
as natural as it can be,
because they're
so trusting of you
and they've got
nothing to worry about.
No one had ever tried
to film this close to a
wild cheetah before.
And after 18 months
of persistence,
she allowed Kim into her world.
♪♪
I was getting some
amazing shots.
Oh, it was great and it
was just a lovely time.
♪♪
But then suddenly,
out of the blue,
she disappeared.
Kim spent months
searching the
Malilangwe Reserve...
but there was no sign of her...
until he got a call from
one of the park rangers.
About six months later,
one of the guides
called on the radio
to say that he had
found this cheetah.
When Kim finally
caught up with her,
he saw she'd been
missing for good reason.
There's five of them.
It's been six months
since Kim last saw her.
But even as a new mother,
she accepts his presence.
If it wasn't for the mother,
who I've worked with before,
there's no ways I'd be allowed
this close to these
little guys, eh?
They're still a bit wobbly
on their legs, huh?
It's exceptional
to be allowed to get this
close to cheetah cubs.
And now Kim wants to see
how far the mother's
trust extends.
I'm going to get out now
and see how... how they react,
but I'm not going to walk
straight towards them.
I'm just going to go and
lie down to the side here
and then see how it plays out.
Yeah, hopefully, the cubs
will take their cue from her,
and if she remains
chilled, they will.
Kim is cautious.
Wild cheetahs can be highly
protective of their young.
It could all change
in an instant.
♪♪
In an attempt to
appear unthreatening,
Kim lies down.
♪♪
And in a sign of trust,
so does the mother.
The cubs are now
free to explore.
♪♪
This one little cub
crawled between my
legs, on to my stomach.
He's climbing all over me here.
And it was... Yeah,
it was amazing.
This is a totally wild cheetah.
I just thought it
was incredible.
Why did she let me
do that? It was insane.
It's a bond that
just is so special.
It's... It's incredible.
And the trust is... Well,
that's what it's all about.
It all comes down to trust.
It was incredibly special.
That's the reason
why I do what I do.
It's those special moments.
This remarkable trust
between one man
and one wild predator
was so complete
that the mother
extended it to her cubs.
Maternal protection is vital
to the survival of animals,
and the maternal bond so strong
that without it,
offspring can die.
The fundamental
bond in all mammals
is between the
mother and her child.
And so that's sort of where
we begin to first
experience feelings of love,
as an attachment to our mother.
And then we
want to go on in life
and form similar attachments.
Emotions are certainly
very essential to survival.
I don't see how animals
can take care of their offspring
if there's not a bond there.
When wild animals
lose their mothers,
humans can take on the
role of surrogate parent.
How is this vital
bond re-created?
And when the animal is
introduced back into the wild,
can the bond survive?
In Congo, the Jane
Goodall Institute's
Tchimpounga Chimpanzee
Rehabilitation Center
is home to over 100
orphaned chimpanzees,
many born in the wild.
But they're all in desperate
need of one thing...
A mother's love.
The orphan chimpanzees
that come to our sanctuaries,
they've been traumatized,
they've lost their mothers,
they're very often wounded.
It's absolutely essential
that they do see their caregiver
as a sort of surrogate mother.
Allez. Allez, allez, allez.
Dr. Rebeca Atencia is a vet
with 15 years of experience
caring for sick and
orphaned chimpanzees.
Her aim is to raise and
nurture them back to the wild.
These mornings are just great.
To see how they
go to the forest,
they just walk through
the savanna with us,
playing and playing like
in the wild, you know?
Hey.
Once they reach
the forest playground,
it's breakfast time.
In the wild, a chimp
relies on its mother's milk
until it's about 5 years old.
We want to have healthy chimps,
that they develop normal
behavior like in the wild.
And for that, they
need to play every day.
They need to enjoy.
They need to just be
babies like they are now.
Chimpanzees share 98%
of their DNA with humans.
And just like us,
one of the best ways
to learn is through play.
Hey.
These little ones
don't just need food
and a safe place to learn.
There's one thing they're
missing more than anything.
At that time of their life,
their mother is the
center of their life.
It's everything for them.
The child is suckling,
riding the mother's back,
sleeping with her at night
until the age of 5... 5 years.
So the mother-infant
bond in chimpanzee society
is absolutely,
desperately important.
And for the caregivers,
replacing that love
is like becoming a
mother themselves.
This relationship is like
a maternal relationship.
They feel that
it's their support
for the rest of their life.
If something is going to happen
and that person is around,
they feel at home
because that person
is part of their family.
One chimp Rebeca formed
a special relationship with
arrived at the sanctuary
nine years ago.
She'd lost her
parents to poachers
and was severely malnourished.
She had that lost
look in her eyes.
She was confused.
We gave her a big mango,
and she was eating
and eating and eating
and not stop eating.
Kudia, it means "to
eat" in local language.
And we said, "Okay, we know
already her name... Kudia."
Kudia was raised in
Rebeca's care day and night.
The two became inseparable.
I just took her with
me and I hug her.
She was lost for all this time
and she was afraid of everybody,
and suddenly,
she found her adoptive
mother, and it was me.
The mother-infant relationship
is one of the strongest
and most highly evolved.
And there's some people
who actually believe
that that is the root
of all the bonding
and compassion and empathy
that we see among animals.
They really believe
that it's basically born,
if you will, in the
mother-infant bond.
They're brought into this
very loving environment
and a person cares
for them, feeds them,
does everything for them
that their mothers
would have done.
The most natural
sort of response
is to be completely
attached to that individual.
Rebeca and her cameraman
husband, Fernando,
spent seven years
watching Kudia grow
from strength to strength,
and soon it was time to
send her back to the wild.
I was happy for her.
I knew that she would
be great in the forest.
She will be like
a real wild chimp.
But I was afraid of what
is going to happen to her.
At the end, they
are like your children.
They are part of your life.
Rebeca is heading out
to a remote river island,
which has been home to
Kudia for the last two years,
in the hope of a reunion.
As a vet, she wants to
make sure Kudia is healthy
and adapting
to life in the wild.
And as a mother, she just
wants to see her baby again.
When you are in
the life of somebody
for so many years, you
have this connection,
and she's part of my life,
you know, part of my family.
Living on the island keeps
Kudia safe from poachers.
But she's far from alone.
The Congo's rivers and
forests can be deadly.
There are 20 other
chimps on Kudia's island...
and the older males in
particular can be aggressive.
It is very possible
that a chimpanzee
in a specific situation
can kill somebody.
A question of minutes.
Okay, we need to get ready,
and we'll go to the chimps.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Until they know it's safe,
Fernando, Rebeca's
cameraman husband,
will take over the filming.
We think that Kudia is around,
that we are going
to... Fernando and me,
we are going down to try
to check if Kudia is here.
Back.
I am nervous.
I don't know what
she's going to do.
How is she going to
show that she knows me?
This bond that we started
when she was young...
Still there or not?
I don't know what
is going to happen,
and it's like a mystery.
Allez, allez, allez!
Kudia.
Allez, allez, allez.
Sure enough,
there's movement
up in the tree canopy.
The chimps know
they have visitors.
And then a familiar face.
Kudia.
♪♪
♪♪
It's a cautious first encounter.
After two years, does Kudia
even want to reconnect?
But like any mother,
Rebeca doesn't give up easily.
Oh.
♪♪
Oh.
In her gentle way,
Kudia leads Rebeca
towards a clearing.
And then, acceptance turns
to unmistakable affection.
This is so natural,
the way that she's just putting
her hand on my shoulder.
She's just touching my skin,
and she's so sweet in
the way that she does that.
She's trying to show
me that she has love.
Over an hour passes
with Kudia seemingly content
just to be close to Rebeca.
♪♪
Kudia, what's
happening with you?
♪♪
Convinced she's
happy and healthy
in her new wild paradise,
it's nearly time to say goodbye.
When you live with chimpanzees,
and you are part of their group
and you are part
of their family,
you start to see how
close they are to us
and how close we are to them.
You understand
that they feel love.
Bye, Kudia.
Hoot, hoot.
♪♪
We call it love
between two humans,
so there's no reason
not to call it love
between a non-human and a human.
Love, like all emotions, has
a physiological foundation.
It originates in the brain.
All mammals share
the same structures
in what's called
the limbic system
that underlie emotions.
There's a little almond-shaped
structure called the amygdala.
We all have it,
and it works to generate
feelings of emotions
across mammals.
We're not the only creatures
whose brains are
hard-wired for emotional lives.
And along with many mammals,
we also share hormones
released during
social interactions
that generate feelings
of trust and love.
The feeling of love is
triggered by oxytocin,
this chemical that's
released in our bodies.
Other animals have it.
We may not be able to say
exactly what they are feeling.
But is the chemical
being expressed?
Yes.
If mammals share
similar brain chemistry
and are primed to have
emotional lives like us,
can we use this
knowledge to help them?
It's dawn at Nairobi's
David Sheldrake Wildlife
Trust elephant orphanage.
Head keeper Edwin
Lusichi has spent 16 years
rescuing orphaned elephants
and sending them back to the wild.
When the orphans
come in the nursery,
some of them come in in
very, very poor conditions.
All their bodies malnourished.
They've not had
food for a long time.
No water.
They're just seriously
starving to death.
Edwin trained to be a priest,
but when he came
to the Nairobi nursery,
he found his true calling
and never looked back.
I believe I have a special gift
for working with elephants,
because sometimes I
really don't understand.
Some of the new
elephants who come in,
touching them or coming
close to them for the first time,
they just accept me.
Edwin's sensitivity to
the animals is crucial.
Nearly 100 elephants are killed
by poachers every day in Africa.
The babies not only witness
the violent attacks
on their families,
they're often left having
to fend for themselves.
When the rescued orphans arrive,
they're often too
frightened of people
to accept the keepers' help.
So Edwin and his
team have to find ways
to build relationships
with the elephants
before they can treat
them, care for them,
and feed them back to health.
The same care that we
give to our human children
is the same that we give
to the baby elephants.
So it's like having
a newborn baby.
These babies don't just
need to be nursed
back to health physically.
If their mothers were
killed by poachers
and they saw it happen,
they are emotionally
or seriously stressed
and traumatized.
These elephants are
family-oriented animals,
so we have to be
part of their family.
We have to show them love.
But how do you build
a loving relationship
with an elephant?
A lot of touch is
showing affection,
because they feel
very, very comfortable
when you touch them around.
Okay, there you are.
When they suck on your fingers,
they just feel very relaxed
and very affectionate.
And being close to them
and the positive
thoughts about them
helps them to heal
from all the trauma,
from all the stress
they have encountered.
Over time, the
elephants show signs
that they are embracing Edwin
and that a strong
bond is forming.
We do get love back
from the elephants,
because we see
how they react to us...
Wanting to sniff us everywhere,
putting their trunk
all around our body.
So we see the love coming
back from the elephants.
Some people might
find it surprising
that animals who have
been traumatized with humans
still form bonds with them.
I think they're
reading the human,
and at some point,
they're going,
"I can trust you."
And then, once
they form this trust,
the doors are wide-open
to forming a very strong,
deep, and long-lasting bond.
These bonds of trust
form the basis of
their social skills,
which will be essential
when they reintegrate
into wild herds.
One pioneering ethologist
knows just how complex
their social lives are.
In Amboseli National
Park in Kenya,
renowned wildlife
biologist Cynthia Moss
set out on what would become
the longest continuous
study of elephants.
The project in Amboseli
has been running since 1972.
We've been following over
3,000 elephants over that time.
We know every
animal individually,
and we follow individual
lives from birth to death.
She soon discovered
that elephants have
one of the most highly
developed social lives
in the animal kingdom.
In my studies, I've shown
that there's five levels
of social organization.
The base is the family unit,
and that consists of
females and their calves.
And then families have
special relationships
with other families,
and those are
called bond groups.
And then we have a clan,
which is maybe made
up of 10 or more families.
They're interacting
and intermingling.
Often, there's a whole meeting
and aggregating
and breaking down.
It's called a
fission-fusion society.
Cynthia also observed
how excited they can be
when family members reunite.
When they come
back together again,
there is inevitably a
wonderful greeting ceremony
where they run
together, you know,
already trumpeting and
rumbling and screaming.
And then they come together,
and they click their tusks
and entwine their trunks
and spin around and urinate
and defecate and everything,
and that's what we call
the greeting ceremony.
And that is just a
very joyful thing.
Back in Nairobi, it's
bedtime at the nursery.
The keepers sleep
in with the orphans,
spending each night
with a different elephant,
to prevent the orphans
from becoming too attached.
For Edwin and the keepers,
it's one long
process of letting go.
When the elephants
graduate from the nursery
and they go to be
reintroduced back into the wild,
yes, I miss them,
but I feel a lot
and a lot of joy,
to see them go
back into the wild.
And so that is the
happiest moment in my life,
despite the missing them.
Tomorrow, Edwin will
embark on a journey
that he hopes will reunite him
with elephants he has missed
ever since they
left the orphanage.
One of them is Naipoki,
who was just 3 months
old when she was rescued.
It was sad, it was painful.
And I concentrated a lot
on just making
sure that she's okay.
She was one of my favorites
when she was in the nursery.
So friendly, very playful.
Another of his favorites,
called Lempaute,
was rescued 10 years
ago from the roadside
after losing her mother.
She was a very,
very cheeky elephant
from the beginning.
Very, very cheeky and
sometimes very naughty.
This is Tsavo East National Park
in southern Kenya,
home to 12,000 wild elephants.
It's here that Edwin's
orphans are transferred
to begin their
reintroduction into the wild.
The orphans are growing up fast.
Naipoki, Lempaute,
and the others
are learning to rely
less on the keepers
and more on each other.
♪♪
When they are happy like now,
they are healing
psychologically,
because when they came in,
they were very much traumatized
and they were given
that love by the keepers.
So with their fellow orphans,
they usually team
up in groups of friends
and they have some
socializing and happy games.
So this will keep them busy.
They will forget their
bad and terrible past
and they get their life back.
Edwin has not seen his
ex-orphans in over a year.
He's eager to reunite
with Naipoki and Lempaute
and discover whether
they remember him.
Very exciting.
I just want to see how
they're progressing.
Now in Tsavo,
he's just minutes away
from seeing his old friends.
Being reunited
with the elephants,
it is like meeting an
old longtime friend
or meeting an old
longtime family.
That excitement
is what I'm here for.
But now that Edwin's
babies have grown up,
will they remember him?
And now that they've
bonded as a herd,
will they care?
Edwin has spent his
life working with them,
and even he has no
idea how they'll react.
But then...
Hello, Naipoki.
Hello, Naipoki.
How are you doing, Naipoki?
How are you? Do you remember me?
It's good.
I can see you
have big tusks now,
becoming a big girl.
They've been apart
for almost two years.
But it's clear
Naipoki remembers.
I hope you're fine.
You happy to see me?
I'm happy to see you.
Naipoki.
Don't put my head in your mouth.
Don't put my head in your mouth.
Naipoki is showing all the
signs of elephant happiness.
But then, an older
female breaks up the party.
Lempaute. Lempaute.
Lempaute, don't.
Lempaute, Lempaute.
It's another of Edwin's
orphans, Lempaute.
She was always the
unpredictable one.
And she hasn't seen
Edwin in over a year.
You remember me now?
Is this aggression, or
could it be jealousy?
You don't need to push.
You now remember me again?
You now want to be with me?
She wants to show
Edwin a bit of love herself.
Mm-hmm?
Now I can see you remember.
You are big, big, big, big.
I just feel so happy
to be in the middle
of all these elephants,
all with their trunk around
me, touching and smelling.
It's a sign that
they remember me.
It's a way of rekindling.
It's almost like a
handshake in humans.
They're just taking in the odor.
They're taking in the
sight and the sound.
It's like, "Wow, it's you.
Wow, it's really you."
There is a long
memory in those animals
of their caretaker,
of the person that
they loved and trusted.
And that just is not erased.
You know, that, I don't think,
is probably ever forgotten.
It is a big, big part
of my family reunion.
And I'm happy to be reunited
with them after some long time.
But this reunion
is also a goodbye.
Soon, these elephants
will bond with wild herds
and leave the keepers for good.
Another farewell, two
years ago, raised questions
about the depths of an
animal's emotional awareness.
Jane Goodall traveled
to the Republic of Congo
for the release of an orphaned
chimpanzee... Wounda.
She'd been very sick.
And I met her when she'd
recovered from her sickness.
And it was decided
to release her
onto this beautiful
Tchindzoulou Island.
It was very exciting.
During the one-hour boat ride,
Jane did her best to
soothe the distressed animal.
I was sitting just
outside the cage,
and she must have been,
you know, "Where am I going?
What's happening? Is
this a boat? This is new."
So I was kind of talking
to her through the bars
and trying to reassure her
that it was going
to be wonderful,
and communicating,
mostly silently.
The team arrived on
Tchindzoulou Island.
With Jane was Wounda's
caregiver, Rebeca.
Then, when we opened
the bars of the cage
and she came out,
then climbed up on
the top of the cage,
we didn't know what she'd do.
And her caregivers that
she knows are around her.
And then she turned
and she looked
directly into my eyes.
And then this extraordinary
thing happened.
And it went on and on. It
wasn't just a quick embrace.
It was unbelievably
moving. We all were crying.
Though she had known
Jane Goodall for just an hour,
Wounda seemed to
perceive something special
in this singular human being.
One of the guys said,
"How did Wounda know
that that lady was the one
responsible for all of this?"
Which, of course,
she didn't know.
If you want to say Wounda
was saying thank you,
that's fine.
Who knows, really?
But it was an indication
of an incredible bond.
Wounda shows us
that animals can initiate
relationships with humans.
But what lies behind
their motivation
still captivates us.
What Wounda was saying
to me with that embrace,
none of us know.
I have absolutely no idea.
Even after decades of study,
animals still evoke profound
questions and wonder.
We want to know what
animals think and feel.
Now we have people
who are going out there
and they're answering
these questions for us.
They're bringing back this
information from this frontier.
It's a wonderful time.
And as our
understanding develops,
these provocative
reunions may help us
to see animals in
a whole new light.
I think these reunions
are wonderful examples
of these enduring bonds.
They're part of
who the animal is.
They're in the animal's
heart. They really are.
People are amazed
that they're, you know,
they're so emotional,
that they have these...
This ability to love.
These reunions show how
companionship, trust, love,
and maternal bonds
are characteristics that
many species share.
Emotional connections may be
as important to animals
as they are to us.
♪♪
To learn more about what you've
seen on this "Nature" program,
♪♪