Nature (1982–…): Season 36, Episode 1 - Naledi: One Little Elephant - full transcript
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
All right. Sorry, Brett.
Look at the camera.
Just look at... at me
if you can see me.
- Yeah, yeah. Ooh.
- Ooh. Sorry.
What day is this
of her pregnancy?
This would be 652 today.
♪♪
Hopefully, it's tonight.
Get it over with.
Come on. Come on. Come on.
♪♪
What we have here on the board
are the suggested
names for Kiti's baby.
Well, I think the most
pertinent one is Lobaka,
"a long time," because
we've been hanging out here,
waiting for her to give
birth for nearly 2 weeks.
Those are beautiful names
with beautiful meanings.
I'll go for Naledi, "star."
13 days in, I think we
have enough footage
of a calf not being born.
A pregnant elephant
not giving birth is covered.
Day number 661.
Have... About to have a baby.
It's been a long wait, so...
We're about to have a baby,
so looking forward to it.
♪♪
Come on. Come on. Come on.
♪♪
Here we go. It's going now
♪♪
Quiet, quiet, quiet,
quiet, quiet, quiet.
♪♪
♪♪
Quiet.
♪♪
Nobody talk.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Yeah. MITCHELL: Yeah.
Did you see the baby, Liz?
- Yeah.
I've been working with
elephants for almost 20 years.
When I see Naledi,
it's like seeing a new
member of the family.
She's like the same
as my daughter.
So I'm very proud of her.
Ha, beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful.
Abu Camp is now a half
way house, I suppose...
taking on elephants that
have had a bad background.
Some of these
elephants we've got here,
they are orphans.
They are the ones from the
zoo or circus environment.
The rest, they were
born in captivity.
♪♪
I'm an African. Born and
raised here in Botswana.
And... the bush
is just part of me.
It's in my blood.
I've been part of this
herd for the last 4 years.
I've been tasked with
looking after them.
♪♪
And our philosophy at Abu
is to eventually reintroduce
these amazing animals
back into the wild.
♪♪
They're free-ranging
during the day, feeding,
drinking, mud wallowing.
♪♪
I'm very happy, to
be honest with you,
with what is
happening with Naledi,
the way she is being
accepted by the herd.
♪♪
Everything seems
to be working well.
♪♪
Kiti was an orphan.
She was separated from her herd
and now she's been here since.
She's a great mom.
Good girl.
She's got a little calf,
Lorato, who's now 5.
♪♪
I don't think she's got
a bad bone in her body.
She's one of the sweetest
elephants I've ever met.
All right, Kiti. Hey.
You can just look at
her, and she's perfect.
♪♪
I would like to see Naledi
live out a natural life,
as wild as possible,
and that's a decision that she
will ultimately have to make.
But having said that...
the challenges that
elephants face across Africa
are so complex.
Loss of habitat is increasing
human-elephant conflict,
retaliatory killings,
exacerbated by the
demand for ivory.
We're losing elephants every
15 minutes, 96 elephants a day.
In a year, it's estimated
that we may be losing
between 25,000
and 30,000 elephants.
We know how fast
we're losing elephants,
but how many
elephants currently exist
on the African
continent is guesswork.
So our mission over the
next year, put in a nutshell,
is essentially to count
Africa's elephants.
We'll take to the skies.
♪♪
We'll be starting
here in Botswana,
and then we'll extend
to include Angola,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa.
Then onto Tanzania, Kenya,
South Sudan, through to Chad.
Oh, my goodness. Look at
all these elephants coming up.
This is a daunting project
of massive proportions,
which has never been attempted.
We're partnering with six NGOs,
with conservation biologists,
with governments across Africa.
Oh, one bull. Big
one. Beautiful.
And this survey will provide us
with some of the most
important information ever
to ensuring the long-term
survival of elephants.
And I've devoted my life
to conserving these
majestic creatures.
♪♪
♪♪
Got the phone call on Sunday,
and immediately I
phoned our veterinarian,
and that's when I learned
that there was very
little chance of hope.
♪♪
By the time the
vet arrived here,
her main intestine came out.
He had to inject
her to put her to rest,
and that was the end of Kiti.
♪♪
She died from a prolapse
of the large intestine.
We did what we felt was
right, and that was to bury her.
♪♪
You know, it caught
us, all of us, by surprise,
and we still not
believe that Kiti is gone.
We think maybe she...
She has just gone f or a...
You know she went out for a
journey, for a visit somewhere.
Maybe one day, she'll come back.
I think that's enough.
♪♪
This little girl has
been through such
a tragic experience,
and I'm confident
that she will...
she'll pull through
this difficult time.
I have the feeling that she's
going through hard times,
and it will stay within
her mind, I think,
f or the rest of her life.
♪♪
Hello, Cathy.
Aye, in the Abu
herd, we've got Cathy,
and all the babies,
they treat her as
the grandmother.
Cathy has never had her
own baby in her lifetime.
She was taken as a
baby, at the age of 1,
and she has been in zoos and
circuses for more than 20 years.
Cathy, let's go!
Naledi went to Cathy, and
although she is the oldest,
she can be sometimes
unpredictable.
But she let Naledi
to suckle from her.
She managed to
get a little bit of milk.
It's really incredible
how Cathy has been
able to produce milk
when she's never
had a calf of her own.
That's just phenomenal.
Now is Cathy
producing enough milk?
Is there enough nutrition in it?
We just take each
day as it comes.
♪♪
Each and every day...
Naledi is losing weight,
and she's becoming
skinny and weak.
You could see that her
jaws were sticking out,
showing that she wasn't
getting enough food.
♪♪
Cathy actually doesn't know
how to take care of the baby...
and doesn't have enough milk.
She looks drained.
She's lethargic.
Her little eyes are weeping.
She holds her head low
signs that I've seen out
in the wild of young calves
that have been abandoned
and are on their way out.
♪♪
The rate she's going,
Wellie, you know
I don't give her
more than 2, 3 days.
♪♪
We have to try and do something.
The best way is to separate her
from all the rest of the herd.
This is the last option now
Okay. CHASE: Okay. Take Cathy.
Hey, hey. Hey. MAN: Okay.
I'm caught here,
brother. We need to open.
Open, open. Open the side. Open!
♪♪
Easy, Naledi.
Mike, get inside.
♪♪
♪♪
Easy, girl. Easy.
Good girl, good girl.
It's our last...
option to make sure
she pulls through this.
Uh, you know we're
watching her die,
and this is the only chance
that we have of saving her.
♪♪
♪♪
Easy, easy, easy, easy.
Here you go, Wellie.
Just feed it to her.
Right temperature? JANA:
Much better. Thank you.
Hi, girl! Hi! Hey.
Naledi, are you going
to take this bottle?
Please, don't let me down.
♪♪
We have to be
like their mothers.
We have to be with her 24/7.
♪♪
You know that's how she'll end
up accepting you as her mother
because she knows
that you are the provider.
♪♪
Food? Food?
You know we've just got
to take it one step at a time.
♪♪
That get her trunk up.
♪♪
Come here.
♪♪
Okay. All right.
All right.
Shh.
Come.
Come, Naledi.
Tell me, what's wrong?
You want to suck my finger?
Oh, no. My ear...
I can't get inside her
heart or inside her mind
and tell exactly what
she's going through.
♪♪
What they need is love.
♪♪
What?
Feel good?
♪♪
This is her first night away
from the rest of the herd.
♪♪
Come, let's sleep.
Come on. Sleep with Wellie.
Here you go.
The minute you
leave her by herself
and she can be
stressed from that,
and then she can
die from that stress.
So we have to make sure
that she has got someone 24/7.
♪♪
I guess it's been
nearly 8 hours,
and she hasn't
suckled from the bottle.
♪♪
If she... If she gives
up fighting, it's...
we'll lose her.
♪♪
Come, let's go for
a walk. Come on.
Good, Mike. Cup of coffee.
It's the most important
day in Naledi's life.
If she doesn't build a
relationship and a bond with us,
we're faced with some
pretty bleak situation.
Good girl. Good girl, Naledi.
What are you thinking about?
You have to be very
close to their trunk,
and she have to feel
your face, your nose.
You know that's how you
build your bond with her.
♪♪
Hey, girl.
Come on.
♪♪
I was worried about Naledi,
that she wasn't
going to make it.
But now she has got us.
We are there to look
after her, to protect her.
♪♪
♪♪
Come on.
Let's go say
"hello" to everybody.
Here's Dad!
Had us worried all day! -
Six veterinarians told me
she wasn't going to make it,
but she's well on
the road to recovery.
They will keep a
watchful eye on her.
She's still too small,
and Naledi's situation
reminds me of how many
other orphaned calves
who have lost their
mothers to poaching.
There could be
hundreds, thousands.
I've got to return
to the task at hand.
♪♪
It takes quite a lot of work
to look after a baby elephant.
♪♪
We got all the handlers
to rotate on the Naledi shift.
Not even a minute had passed
without being with Naledi.
♪♪
Naledi, come. Come, girl.
Hello, my girl.
Before, you could see
her jaws sticking out,
but now she's doing great.
♪♪
Kenya has always
been at the top of our list
for the pan-Africa
aerial survey.
The country has
always been at the helm
of elephant conservation.
This is one of the
last strongholds
for African elephants.
Do you find that poachers
are specifically targeting
bigger tusked
animals or anything?
No. Actually, anything.
One thing is for sure...
If they're not looked after,
they ain't going to
be here f or tomorrow
He's a really special guy.
He's called Satao.
It's certainly the
biggest bull I've seen.
It is one of those
things that you think are
a forgotten thing of the past,
but in fact, he's right there.
♪♪
A rare treasure, eh?
Imagine what he could be,
just given another 5 years.
♪♪
The last time I was at
Abu was 4 1/2 months ago.
Naledi, hi.
Hello, my girl.
Hello there.
Hey. Hello.
I missed you. Hey.
Hey, my girl. Yes.
I missed you too.
Hey.
She doesn't have
that sunken look
and that sort of glazed
look over the eyes.
You can see, she's strong.
Well done, Onx. I'm
very proud of you guys.
You've done well.
You think she's
ready to go back, Onx?
♪♪
She's been away from
the herd for 4 months.
It is the time for her to come
and join up with the herd.
Naledi's ready, and
the rest of the herd,
especially Lorato,
is looking forward
to meet her sister
again already.
It's not as simple as
opening a door and saying,
"Naledi, here's Lorato."
We don't want the moment to
be marred by a bad response
by the rest of the herd.
Hey, Mike.
Is Lorato coming over first?
Yeah. Lorato is in front.
She'll pick up her sense
just now I'm sure, eh?
Yeah. Her trunk is already up.
Yeah.
Lorato is Naledi's big sister,
so hopefully she is
accepted within the herd.
Let it happen. - Okay.
Easy, easy.
- Good girl.
- Lorato, easy, girl.
All right, Lorato.
Come, girl.
Come, Lorato.
Come, Lorato. Yeah. Good girl.
It's your sister, Lorato.
Good girl. CHASE:
Lorato, easy, girl.
All right, Lorato.
Come on. Come on.
Come on.
It's your little sister.
Lorato, come. - Good girl.
Yeah. MITCHELL: Come, Lorato.
Lorato is very
confused at the moment.
What's going through her
head is, "This is not right."
Potentially saying,
"Hang on. This is not right.
I know the smell,
but she's been gone.
Where's she been gone?"
Hasn't seen her
for 4 1/2 months.
Can you come with
Sirheni and Warona?
Just ask Chris to
hang back there.
Just give them a bit of
space because none of us
want to get knocked over.
Paseka. POLOKO: Hey, Paseka.
Come. Come, Paseka.
Come, Paseka. Good girl.
Come, Paseka.
Paseka is the adopted
sister of Naledi.
Easy, easy.
She's always been
there for Naledi.
Good girl.
Come, Paseka.
Come, Paseka. Easy, easy.
Easy.
Come, Paseka. Come see.
Come see her.
Come, Paseka.
All right.
- Just let it happen.
- Easy.
Let it happen.
Let it happen. Let it happen.
Good girl.
Let it happen.
- Come, Lorato.
- Let it happen.
Come, Lorato. Come.
Just a nice big circle.
Just keep circling.
Come this side.
All right. CHASE: Easy, girl.
All right. All right.
- You with me?
- It's your sister.
Good girl. It's your sister.
Yes.
These animals have
incredible bonds.
Clearly, Naledi remembered
Paseka and Lorato.
And they just picked
up where they left off.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Look at the ears!
The whole family is celebrating,
and I think that's exactly what's
happening here, you know?
You can't take away that bond.
You're not going
to take that away.
♪♪
♪♪
Naledi, now she's
becoming an elephant.
Her two sisters, they've
got a very big role to play.
They're going to teach her
which plants to eat and make sure
that she doesn't roam
far away from the herd.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
It makes me very
happy now she's grown
and that we're
very good mothers.
Not fathers, no, but mothers.
Come and eat your cake, huh?
Shows that we have made it.
Naledi has not been well.
She's always energetic
and playing around,
running, you know
picking grass, leaves.
But she didn't want to eat.
She didn't want to drink.
♪♪
She's dribbling.
I'm just scared she's
eaten something stupid.
♪♪
She's suffering from
severe constipation.
But, unfortunately, it
just got worse and worse.
♪♪
She had been poked and
prodded and given enemas
and tubing via her mouth
in hope that she was going to
be able to pass this blockage.
But it just got worse.
I didn't know how long
she could sustain this for.
I asked the vet what her
chances of survival were.
He said 30%.
Swabs before we do anything.
Surgery was the
only alternative to try
and remove this blockage.
We want a vein.
It was like watching
your child being opened.
You could see most
of us were just worried
she wouldn't make it.
Maybe this is the end of it.
We gave her general anesthetic,
which is quite dangerous.
♪♪
She's not breathing.
Down on the table right here.
We can wash with...
Rob, she's not breathing.
Okay.
Got my hand in here.
Check the breathing
and the pulse.
♪♪
W here is the heartbeat?
♪♪
There's some adrenaline
on the left-hand side.
Can I have a
stethoscope, please?
♪♪
Let's get the oxygen into her.
Yeah.
♪♪
Keep going. ROB: Keep it there.
♪♪
Shall I give her some Antisedan?
Dopamine and Antisedan.
♪♪
You can give her... Let's
see if she does it again.
Is her heart beating? - Yeah.
They started opening her up,
and then, all of a sudden,
for sure, we saw the problem.
Then he opened a small space,
then he started pulling
all the palm leaves out.
♪♪
Here, a lot of elephants,
they eat palm leaves.
A baby elephant eats
too many or too much of it,
it will cause problems.
We have to keep her
away from the palm leaves
until she's 3 to 4 years,
which means she will have
to stay within this enclosure
all day long
while the family, they're
just out in the bush, feeding.
♪♪
It's very difficult for her.
She's still a baby, you know?
She's missing her two sisters.
♪♪
Elephant bones,
between three and four,
Mike, they're scattered, but
you can clearly see an elephant.
Elephant bones, Mike,
gathered, I would say
four and three giraffes.
I've seen a lot of
elephant carcasses
that have been poached
and had their faces hacked off.
Elephant carcass?
Poachers have
killed one of Kenya's
most famous elephants.
Tsavo Trust confirmed
that Satao was shot dead
by the poisoned arrows.
A giant elephant had tusks
that nearly reached the ground
and is believed to have
been one of the world's
largest living elephants.
Satao was killed by an ivory
poacher's poisoned arrow
to feed the seemingly
insatiable demand
for ivory in far-of countries.
♪♪
Naledi's struggle is really
emblematic of the crisis
that we find ourselves in.
♪♪
The death of one is a tragedy.
The death of tens of
thousands becomes a statistic.
Her journey is really
emblematic of the journey
we're embarking to
save her wild cousins,
if we are able to act now..
Because we don't
have a lot of time.
♪♪
Hello, Baba. How are you?
Hello. Doing well.
Yeah, just an update
regarding Naledi.
How's she doing? - Yeah.
She's better, and yesterday
she had 26 liters of milk.
Yeah, sure.
So sometimes it's
only good news,
not bad news all the time, man.
Come on.
Come.
♪♪
Are you teaching me
how to swim, Naledi?
♪♪
She seems to be
strong enough to go out
to join the herd
for a few hours.
♪♪
I don't know what will happen.
If she would
like to live with us
f or the rest of her life,
that would be all right.
And if she's happy to
go and live in the wild,
that's also okay.
♪♪
♪♪
To learn more about what you've
seen on this "Nature" program,
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
All right. Sorry, Brett.
Look at the camera.
Just look at... at me
if you can see me.
- Yeah, yeah. Ooh.
- Ooh. Sorry.
What day is this
of her pregnancy?
This would be 652 today.
♪♪
Hopefully, it's tonight.
Get it over with.
Come on. Come on. Come on.
♪♪
What we have here on the board
are the suggested
names for Kiti's baby.
Well, I think the most
pertinent one is Lobaka,
"a long time," because
we've been hanging out here,
waiting for her to give
birth for nearly 2 weeks.
Those are beautiful names
with beautiful meanings.
I'll go for Naledi, "star."
13 days in, I think we
have enough footage
of a calf not being born.
A pregnant elephant
not giving birth is covered.
Day number 661.
Have... About to have a baby.
It's been a long wait, so...
We're about to have a baby,
so looking forward to it.
♪♪
Come on. Come on. Come on.
♪♪
Here we go. It's going now
♪♪
Quiet, quiet, quiet,
quiet, quiet, quiet.
♪♪
♪♪
Quiet.
♪♪
Nobody talk.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Yeah. MITCHELL: Yeah.
Did you see the baby, Liz?
- Yeah.
I've been working with
elephants for almost 20 years.
When I see Naledi,
it's like seeing a new
member of the family.
She's like the same
as my daughter.
So I'm very proud of her.
Ha, beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful.
Abu Camp is now a half
way house, I suppose...
taking on elephants that
have had a bad background.
Some of these
elephants we've got here,
they are orphans.
They are the ones from the
zoo or circus environment.
The rest, they were
born in captivity.
♪♪
I'm an African. Born and
raised here in Botswana.
And... the bush
is just part of me.
It's in my blood.
I've been part of this
herd for the last 4 years.
I've been tasked with
looking after them.
♪♪
And our philosophy at Abu
is to eventually reintroduce
these amazing animals
back into the wild.
♪♪
They're free-ranging
during the day, feeding,
drinking, mud wallowing.
♪♪
I'm very happy, to
be honest with you,
with what is
happening with Naledi,
the way she is being
accepted by the herd.
♪♪
Everything seems
to be working well.
♪♪
Kiti was an orphan.
She was separated from her herd
and now she's been here since.
She's a great mom.
Good girl.
She's got a little calf,
Lorato, who's now 5.
♪♪
I don't think she's got
a bad bone in her body.
She's one of the sweetest
elephants I've ever met.
All right, Kiti. Hey.
You can just look at
her, and she's perfect.
♪♪
I would like to see Naledi
live out a natural life,
as wild as possible,
and that's a decision that she
will ultimately have to make.
But having said that...
the challenges that
elephants face across Africa
are so complex.
Loss of habitat is increasing
human-elephant conflict,
retaliatory killings,
exacerbated by the
demand for ivory.
We're losing elephants every
15 minutes, 96 elephants a day.
In a year, it's estimated
that we may be losing
between 25,000
and 30,000 elephants.
We know how fast
we're losing elephants,
but how many
elephants currently exist
on the African
continent is guesswork.
So our mission over the
next year, put in a nutshell,
is essentially to count
Africa's elephants.
We'll take to the skies.
♪♪
We'll be starting
here in Botswana,
and then we'll extend
to include Angola,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa.
Then onto Tanzania, Kenya,
South Sudan, through to Chad.
Oh, my goodness. Look at
all these elephants coming up.
This is a daunting project
of massive proportions,
which has never been attempted.
We're partnering with six NGOs,
with conservation biologists,
with governments across Africa.
Oh, one bull. Big
one. Beautiful.
And this survey will provide us
with some of the most
important information ever
to ensuring the long-term
survival of elephants.
And I've devoted my life
to conserving these
majestic creatures.
♪♪
♪♪
Got the phone call on Sunday,
and immediately I
phoned our veterinarian,
and that's when I learned
that there was very
little chance of hope.
♪♪
By the time the
vet arrived here,
her main intestine came out.
He had to inject
her to put her to rest,
and that was the end of Kiti.
♪♪
She died from a prolapse
of the large intestine.
We did what we felt was
right, and that was to bury her.
♪♪
You know, it caught
us, all of us, by surprise,
and we still not
believe that Kiti is gone.
We think maybe she...
She has just gone f or a...
You know she went out for a
journey, for a visit somewhere.
Maybe one day, she'll come back.
I think that's enough.
♪♪
This little girl has
been through such
a tragic experience,
and I'm confident
that she will...
she'll pull through
this difficult time.
I have the feeling that she's
going through hard times,
and it will stay within
her mind, I think,
f or the rest of her life.
♪♪
Hello, Cathy.
Aye, in the Abu
herd, we've got Cathy,
and all the babies,
they treat her as
the grandmother.
Cathy has never had her
own baby in her lifetime.
She was taken as a
baby, at the age of 1,
and she has been in zoos and
circuses for more than 20 years.
Cathy, let's go!
Naledi went to Cathy, and
although she is the oldest,
she can be sometimes
unpredictable.
But she let Naledi
to suckle from her.
She managed to
get a little bit of milk.
It's really incredible
how Cathy has been
able to produce milk
when she's never
had a calf of her own.
That's just phenomenal.
Now is Cathy
producing enough milk?
Is there enough nutrition in it?
We just take each
day as it comes.
♪♪
Each and every day...
Naledi is losing weight,
and she's becoming
skinny and weak.
You could see that her
jaws were sticking out,
showing that she wasn't
getting enough food.
♪♪
Cathy actually doesn't know
how to take care of the baby...
and doesn't have enough milk.
She looks drained.
She's lethargic.
Her little eyes are weeping.
She holds her head low
signs that I've seen out
in the wild of young calves
that have been abandoned
and are on their way out.
♪♪
The rate she's going,
Wellie, you know
I don't give her
more than 2, 3 days.
♪♪
We have to try and do something.
The best way is to separate her
from all the rest of the herd.
This is the last option now
Okay. CHASE: Okay. Take Cathy.
Hey, hey. Hey. MAN: Okay.
I'm caught here,
brother. We need to open.
Open, open. Open the side. Open!
♪♪
Easy, Naledi.
Mike, get inside.
♪♪
♪♪
Easy, girl. Easy.
Good girl, good girl.
It's our last...
option to make sure
she pulls through this.
Uh, you know we're
watching her die,
and this is the only chance
that we have of saving her.
♪♪
♪♪
Easy, easy, easy, easy.
Here you go, Wellie.
Just feed it to her.
Right temperature? JANA:
Much better. Thank you.
Hi, girl! Hi! Hey.
Naledi, are you going
to take this bottle?
Please, don't let me down.
♪♪
We have to be
like their mothers.
We have to be with her 24/7.
♪♪
You know that's how she'll end
up accepting you as her mother
because she knows
that you are the provider.
♪♪
Food? Food?
You know we've just got
to take it one step at a time.
♪♪
That get her trunk up.
♪♪
Come here.
♪♪
Okay. All right.
All right.
Shh.
Come.
Come, Naledi.
Tell me, what's wrong?
You want to suck my finger?
Oh, no. My ear...
I can't get inside her
heart or inside her mind
and tell exactly what
she's going through.
♪♪
What they need is love.
♪♪
What?
Feel good?
♪♪
This is her first night away
from the rest of the herd.
♪♪
Come, let's sleep.
Come on. Sleep with Wellie.
Here you go.
The minute you
leave her by herself
and she can be
stressed from that,
and then she can
die from that stress.
So we have to make sure
that she has got someone 24/7.
♪♪
I guess it's been
nearly 8 hours,
and she hasn't
suckled from the bottle.
♪♪
If she... If she gives
up fighting, it's...
we'll lose her.
♪♪
Come, let's go for
a walk. Come on.
Good, Mike. Cup of coffee.
It's the most important
day in Naledi's life.
If she doesn't build a
relationship and a bond with us,
we're faced with some
pretty bleak situation.
Good girl. Good girl, Naledi.
What are you thinking about?
You have to be very
close to their trunk,
and she have to feel
your face, your nose.
You know that's how you
build your bond with her.
♪♪
Hey, girl.
Come on.
♪♪
I was worried about Naledi,
that she wasn't
going to make it.
But now she has got us.
We are there to look
after her, to protect her.
♪♪
♪♪
Come on.
Let's go say
"hello" to everybody.
Here's Dad!
Had us worried all day! -
Six veterinarians told me
she wasn't going to make it,
but she's well on
the road to recovery.
They will keep a
watchful eye on her.
She's still too small,
and Naledi's situation
reminds me of how many
other orphaned calves
who have lost their
mothers to poaching.
There could be
hundreds, thousands.
I've got to return
to the task at hand.
♪♪
It takes quite a lot of work
to look after a baby elephant.
♪♪
We got all the handlers
to rotate on the Naledi shift.
Not even a minute had passed
without being with Naledi.
♪♪
Naledi, come. Come, girl.
Hello, my girl.
Before, you could see
her jaws sticking out,
but now she's doing great.
♪♪
Kenya has always
been at the top of our list
for the pan-Africa
aerial survey.
The country has
always been at the helm
of elephant conservation.
This is one of the
last strongholds
for African elephants.
Do you find that poachers
are specifically targeting
bigger tusked
animals or anything?
No. Actually, anything.
One thing is for sure...
If they're not looked after,
they ain't going to
be here f or tomorrow
He's a really special guy.
He's called Satao.
It's certainly the
biggest bull I've seen.
It is one of those
things that you think are
a forgotten thing of the past,
but in fact, he's right there.
♪♪
A rare treasure, eh?
Imagine what he could be,
just given another 5 years.
♪♪
The last time I was at
Abu was 4 1/2 months ago.
Naledi, hi.
Hello, my girl.
Hello there.
Hey. Hello.
I missed you. Hey.
Hey, my girl. Yes.
I missed you too.
Hey.
She doesn't have
that sunken look
and that sort of glazed
look over the eyes.
You can see, she's strong.
Well done, Onx. I'm
very proud of you guys.
You've done well.
You think she's
ready to go back, Onx?
♪♪
She's been away from
the herd for 4 months.
It is the time for her to come
and join up with the herd.
Naledi's ready, and
the rest of the herd,
especially Lorato,
is looking forward
to meet her sister
again already.
It's not as simple as
opening a door and saying,
"Naledi, here's Lorato."
We don't want the moment to
be marred by a bad response
by the rest of the herd.
Hey, Mike.
Is Lorato coming over first?
Yeah. Lorato is in front.
She'll pick up her sense
just now I'm sure, eh?
Yeah. Her trunk is already up.
Yeah.
Lorato is Naledi's big sister,
so hopefully she is
accepted within the herd.
Let it happen. - Okay.
Easy, easy.
- Good girl.
- Lorato, easy, girl.
All right, Lorato.
Come, girl.
Come, Lorato.
Come, Lorato. Yeah. Good girl.
It's your sister, Lorato.
Good girl. CHASE:
Lorato, easy, girl.
All right, Lorato.
Come on. Come on.
Come on.
It's your little sister.
Lorato, come. - Good girl.
Yeah. MITCHELL: Come, Lorato.
Lorato is very
confused at the moment.
What's going through her
head is, "This is not right."
Potentially saying,
"Hang on. This is not right.
I know the smell,
but she's been gone.
Where's she been gone?"
Hasn't seen her
for 4 1/2 months.
Can you come with
Sirheni and Warona?
Just ask Chris to
hang back there.
Just give them a bit of
space because none of us
want to get knocked over.
Paseka. POLOKO: Hey, Paseka.
Come. Come, Paseka.
Come, Paseka. Good girl.
Come, Paseka.
Paseka is the adopted
sister of Naledi.
Easy, easy.
She's always been
there for Naledi.
Good girl.
Come, Paseka.
Come, Paseka. Easy, easy.
Easy.
Come, Paseka. Come see.
Come see her.
Come, Paseka.
All right.
- Just let it happen.
- Easy.
Let it happen.
Let it happen. Let it happen.
Good girl.
Let it happen.
- Come, Lorato.
- Let it happen.
Come, Lorato. Come.
Just a nice big circle.
Just keep circling.
Come this side.
All right. CHASE: Easy, girl.
All right. All right.
- You with me?
- It's your sister.
Good girl. It's your sister.
Yes.
These animals have
incredible bonds.
Clearly, Naledi remembered
Paseka and Lorato.
And they just picked
up where they left off.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Look at the ears!
The whole family is celebrating,
and I think that's exactly what's
happening here, you know?
You can't take away that bond.
You're not going
to take that away.
♪♪
♪♪
Naledi, now she's
becoming an elephant.
Her two sisters, they've
got a very big role to play.
They're going to teach her
which plants to eat and make sure
that she doesn't roam
far away from the herd.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
It makes me very
happy now she's grown
and that we're
very good mothers.
Not fathers, no, but mothers.
Come and eat your cake, huh?
Shows that we have made it.
Naledi has not been well.
She's always energetic
and playing around,
running, you know
picking grass, leaves.
But she didn't want to eat.
She didn't want to drink.
♪♪
She's dribbling.
I'm just scared she's
eaten something stupid.
♪♪
She's suffering from
severe constipation.
But, unfortunately, it
just got worse and worse.
♪♪
She had been poked and
prodded and given enemas
and tubing via her mouth
in hope that she was going to
be able to pass this blockage.
But it just got worse.
I didn't know how long
she could sustain this for.
I asked the vet what her
chances of survival were.
He said 30%.
Swabs before we do anything.
Surgery was the
only alternative to try
and remove this blockage.
We want a vein.
It was like watching
your child being opened.
You could see most
of us were just worried
she wouldn't make it.
Maybe this is the end of it.
We gave her general anesthetic,
which is quite dangerous.
♪♪
She's not breathing.
Down on the table right here.
We can wash with...
Rob, she's not breathing.
Okay.
Got my hand in here.
Check the breathing
and the pulse.
♪♪
W here is the heartbeat?
♪♪
There's some adrenaline
on the left-hand side.
Can I have a
stethoscope, please?
♪♪
Let's get the oxygen into her.
Yeah.
♪♪
Keep going. ROB: Keep it there.
♪♪
Shall I give her some Antisedan?
Dopamine and Antisedan.
♪♪
You can give her... Let's
see if she does it again.
Is her heart beating? - Yeah.
They started opening her up,
and then, all of a sudden,
for sure, we saw the problem.
Then he opened a small space,
then he started pulling
all the palm leaves out.
♪♪
Here, a lot of elephants,
they eat palm leaves.
A baby elephant eats
too many or too much of it,
it will cause problems.
We have to keep her
away from the palm leaves
until she's 3 to 4 years,
which means she will have
to stay within this enclosure
all day long
while the family, they're
just out in the bush, feeding.
♪♪
It's very difficult for her.
She's still a baby, you know?
She's missing her two sisters.
♪♪
Elephant bones,
between three and four,
Mike, they're scattered, but
you can clearly see an elephant.
Elephant bones, Mike,
gathered, I would say
four and three giraffes.
I've seen a lot of
elephant carcasses
that have been poached
and had their faces hacked off.
Elephant carcass?
Poachers have
killed one of Kenya's
most famous elephants.
Tsavo Trust confirmed
that Satao was shot dead
by the poisoned arrows.
A giant elephant had tusks
that nearly reached the ground
and is believed to have
been one of the world's
largest living elephants.
Satao was killed by an ivory
poacher's poisoned arrow
to feed the seemingly
insatiable demand
for ivory in far-of countries.
♪♪
Naledi's struggle is really
emblematic of the crisis
that we find ourselves in.
♪♪
The death of one is a tragedy.
The death of tens of
thousands becomes a statistic.
Her journey is really
emblematic of the journey
we're embarking to
save her wild cousins,
if we are able to act now..
Because we don't
have a lot of time.
♪♪
Hello, Baba. How are you?
Hello. Doing well.
Yeah, just an update
regarding Naledi.
How's she doing? - Yeah.
She's better, and yesterday
she had 26 liters of milk.
Yeah, sure.
So sometimes it's
only good news,
not bad news all the time, man.
Come on.
Come.
♪♪
Are you teaching me
how to swim, Naledi?
♪♪
She seems to be
strong enough to go out
to join the herd
for a few hours.
♪♪
I don't know what will happen.
If she would
like to live with us
f or the rest of her life,
that would be all right.
And if she's happy to
go and live in the wild,
that's also okay.
♪♪
♪♪
To learn more about what you've
seen on this "Nature" program,
♪♪