1
00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:45,160
Washington, D.C.,
the Smithsonian Museum.

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The largest elephant
ever is here on display.

3
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This is Dr. Steve Boyes.

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He has been in search of
mysterious ghost elephants that

5
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may be descendants of this one.

6
00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:27,680
This is the first
time I've seen this elephant,

7
00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:31,440
this grand elephant
here at the Smithsonian.

8
00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:34,360
{\an8}I've dreamt of it 1,000 times.

9
00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,280
{\an8}I carry a photograph of
this elephant with me.

10
00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:38,720
{\an8}For ten years,

11
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I've been in
pursuit of its descendants in

12
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the part of Angola I've
been working and exploring.

13
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Now, they call it Henry.

14
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Now, Henry is a human name.

15
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And this is interesting
because the Nkangala,

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the people, the
Luchaze of that part of Angola,

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they believe and talk about in
their mythology of elephants

18
00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:00,320
leaving their bodies
to become human.

19
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And, well, this elephant
has left his body.

20
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There's nothing in there.

21
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There's just scaffolding.

22
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His skull and tusks were too
heavy to mount into the exhibit.

23
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But we get to go and
see the, the real skull,

24
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the original skull and tusks,
the, to meet Henry,

25
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this grand elephant, the
largest elephant ever recorded,

26
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the biggest living land animal.

27
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And, I can't believe I'm
standing in front of him,

28
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the greatest elephant ever.

29
00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:01,920
And here are the
actual tusks of Henry.

30
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The Smithsonian allowed
us to take them out and film

31
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them in its storage.

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There are miles of
shelves with collected specimens

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that are never
seen by the public.

34
00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:22,000
And here is the skull of Henry.

35
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The label from 1955
identifying the hunter,

36
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Josef Fenykoevi,
is still attached.

37
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The continent of Africa.

38
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Henry was killed in Angola,

39
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not far from the
highlands where Steve Boyes

40
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has been searching
for the ghost elephants.

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It is a plateau of over
4,000 feet elevation.

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Its eastern part is
almost uninhabited.

43
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It is called the
Water Tower of Africa.

44
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The locals have
another name for it,

45
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the Source of Life.

46
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Annually, this water tower
supplies ten times the average

47
00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:22,720
freshwater use of the
state of California.

48
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Some of Africa's major rivers
have their sources there.

49
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In the north,

50
00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:34,320
the Congo that
ends up in the Atlantic,

51
00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:36,320
in the east,

52
00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:39,600
the Zambezi that
flows to the Indian Ocean.

53
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All the tributaries that
flow south form the gigantic

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wetlands of the Okavango Delta.

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Where the water runs down
from the water tower,

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valleys are carved
into the plateau.

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Here, in almost
impassable wetlands,

58
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the water collects in
source lakes and rivers.

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And now, what is almost
unimaginable for us,

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the uninhabited highlands,

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the forest stretching
out in the distance,

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where all this
water comes from,

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is about the size of England.

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Steve Boyes and his team
have discovered there almost

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200 species new to science.

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Everything they have found
is unique to this place.

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Look at us.

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We accompanied
Steve Boyes to Namibia,

69
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about 1,000 miles south
of the Angolan highlands.

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Here, he has been in
contact for years with

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some Bushmen trackers,

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the best remaining in the world.

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These tribal people are the
most marginalized community in

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Namibia, even though
its government is working

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to improve this.

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The terms "San" and "Bushman"
originated as derogatory labels

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in the colonial era but
are now widely used.

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These people, Steve hopes,

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will make his dream
come true to find the

80
00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:03,200
elusive ghost elephants.

81
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This quest is it almost
going after the white whale?

82
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The unknown, the mysterious?

83
00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:22,880
This is, it's, it is a
bit like <i>Moby Dick,</i>

84
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where I don't even know
if these elephants exist the

85
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way I imagine them.

86
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Could it be that
they are your imagination,

87
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that you are after
ghosts that don't exist?

88
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I am after ghosts
that don't exist right now.

89
00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:44,120
Um, I've spent my life...

90
00:08:47,560 --> 00:08:49,920
...living in a dream
that I never had.

91
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It is like the experience
of the Cuanavale source lake

92
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for the first time.

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You stand there, you feel
like you've been there before,

94
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but you have never been there.

95
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You feel like
you've dreamed it,

96
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but you've never dreamed it.

97
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You feel like you're in a dream.

98
00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:07,640
And these dreams
often come true.

99
00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:14,760
I believe we'll
find an elephant,

100
00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:17,480
maybe not as tall
as a building,

101
00:09:17,560 --> 00:09:19,520
as big as Henry in
the Smithsonian,

102
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but we'll find a bull elephant.

103
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Does it matter
if they are a dream or

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existing in reality, for you?

105
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It doesn't matter for
me if they are just a dream

106
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because that's almost better.

107
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Then they will always exist,

108
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'cause they
always could be there.

109
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And I can go back
for the rest of my life

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looking for them.

111
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And maybe one day,
you find them.

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But that's... that's it.

113
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Maybe that's the future of
all animals, all wildlife,

114
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is to be in a dream,
to be a memory.

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{\an8}This is Xui, one of
our San Bushman master trackers.

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His Ju/’hoansi language
consists of many clicking and

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smacking sounds far from
our phonetic system,

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but his language is complex
and rich in expression.

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Ju/’hoansi translated
means "real people."

120
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I kept wondering,
who are we, then?

121
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I still have a lot of hair
on my chest, on my body.

122
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Am I half an animal?

123
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As we used
to say when we saw you coming,

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we call you

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There are the "hairs" coming,

126
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we call you the "hairs"

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But you are also people.

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And
you are also the "whites."

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We also
call you the "whites."

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Mimicking is an
important part of San culture.

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Xui was proud to demonstrate
for us how a kudu antelope

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finally went down from
his poisoned arrow.

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00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:32,920
{\an8}These San Bushmen
here in the Kalahari Desert

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{\an8}of Northern Namibia
are the oldest,

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00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:40,480
{\an8}the most primordial culture
since the dawn of man.

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They enter a state of trance.

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Thus, the spirit of
elephants can enter them.

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The dance
lasts all night long.

139
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{\an8}This is Kobus,

140
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{\an8}who will come to
Angola as a tracker.

141
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{\an8}We saw him fainting at the
elephant dance last night.

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I asked him if the spirit of
an elephant had entered him.

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"Yes," he says,
"I went into a trance.

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I felt that something
entered my body.

145
00:16:57,160 --> 00:16:59,520
It could have been the
spirit of an elephant,

146
00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:02,560
but I cannot
describe it exactly.

147
00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:05,800
I'm still learning
to become a healer."

148
00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:15,200
{\an8}Xui Dawid is the third master
tracker to join the expedition

149
00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:18,120
to Angola to find
the ghost elephants.

150
00:17:19,120 --> 00:17:21,440
He's the only one
who speaks English.

151
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In Angola, I see
the rubbing in the tree.

152
00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:26,240
Yeah.

153
00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:27,720
Can you see that
is that elephant because

154
00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:28,800
of the height?

155
00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,480
So, if you scratch
the body up on the tree.

156
00:17:33,360 --> 00:17:34,360
Yeah.

157
00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:37,040
Like this.

158
00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:38,400
Which is
the itchiest part?

159
00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:40,320
The itchy, is it the
shoulder or the back?

160
00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:42,280
- The shoulder. The shoulder.
- The shoulder blades are.

161
00:17:42,360 --> 00:17:43,440
- Yeah.
- Okay.

162
00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:45,480
Yeah, and the
head here and the face.

163
00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:47,520
You make it, he
makes it like this.

164
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:48,600
On a tree?

165
00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:50,440
In the tree. Yeah.

166
00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:54,120
I'd quickly like to
introduce Kerllen Costa.

167
00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:56,640
He's from Angola,

168
00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,240
and he's been working
with the Luchaze in the

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00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,440
Angolan highlands
for over a decade.

170
00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:04,600
This is Gary Trower.

171
00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:07,520
He's been working with
these communities,

172
00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:10,640
these San communities in
this area also for a decade.

173
00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:15,120
And it's a long journey to the
Angolan highlands from here.

174
00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:17,600
It's a week driving.

175
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It's over 1,000 miles.

176
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:20,720
And, of course,

177
00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:22,760
the master trackers
are nervous about that.

178
00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:26,160
Gary will be joining
them on their journey up,

179
00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:28,760
and Kerllen will be up
there to receive them.

180
00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:32,200
So it's important that we spend
time with the master trackers

181
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:33,800
and their families.

182
00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:39,480
We were curious
about the poison Xui uses

183
00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,080
for his hunting.

184
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,280
He took us into the bush
together with Ricardo,

185
00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:47,520
our translator, and Gary.

186
00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:55,440
Xui is in search of a bush
that is depleted of its foliage.

187
00:18:57,080 --> 00:19:01,480
This is a sign for him that a
small beetle about the size of

188
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:04,560
our ladybug has laid its eggs.

189
00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:09,600
The hatched grubs voraciously
eat all the leaves,

190
00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:13,680
then let themselves
drop to the ground,

191
00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:16,640
where they dig themselves
deep into the sand.

192
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:20,640
Here, they form cocoons.

193
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,640
It is these cocoons
Xui is after.

194
00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:50,680
The grubs inside
are so phenomenally poisonous

195
00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:54,200
that a few of them would
even kill an elephant.

196
00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,080
Under no circumstance
must Xui have a cut or

197
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:03,120
a scratch on his hand, or,

198
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:07,480
slowly, within a day,
he would be stone dead.

199
00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:13,480
So we have a little
pestle and mortar here,

200
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:15,520
which is used for
grinding them up.

201
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:17,920
Once you've mixed your poison
in here and it's ready,

202
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:21,160
you make a little
spatula-type tool out of wood,

203
00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:23,160
and then you start smearing it.

204
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:24,760
You can see this brown color.

205
00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:27,440
All the way from here to there
is where the poison is applied.

206
00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:29,480
You never actually apply
the poison on the tip,

207
00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:31,160
because if you
accidentally scratch yourself

208
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:32,480
or cut yourself,

209
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:34,040
so that's why you can
see it's clearly only

210
00:20:34,120 --> 00:20:35,560
on this section.

211
00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:39,640
Xui once almost died
from this poison when he tried

212
00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:43,240
to break up a fight
between his older brother and

213
00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:44,920
another young man.

214
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:49,080
He threw himself into the
middle and was stabbed with a

215
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:51,040
poisoned arrow.

216
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:56,680
There's a widespread
idealization that these Bushmen,

217
00:20:56,760 --> 00:21:00,560
as pure children of nature,
live in harmony.

218
00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:05,000
But like everywhere else,
there is jealousy, violence,

219
00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:07,520
and even murder.

220
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:08,800
So what did he do?

221
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:09,920
As soon as he got
that poison in him,

222
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:10,960
what was his first reaction,

223
00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:12,480
and what did he
do to save his life?

224
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:16,160
They made deep cuts in
his shoulder and many more cuts

225
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:19,680
all the way down his arm
to bleed out the poison.

226
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,400
His whole arm withered away,

227
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,920
and it took years
to grow back to the strength

228
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:29,760
of his other arm.

229
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:33,280
{\an8}It's extremely poisonous.

230
00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:35,720
{\an8}If you have any cuts
in your hand,

231
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:37,960
{\an8}I can vouch for that,

232
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:40,880
that when I was in the lab,
in the process of trying to put

233
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,280
the protective cap
back on the needle after

234
00:21:43,360 --> 00:21:45,040
I've done the extract,

235
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:47,320
it went straight
through the glove and actually

236
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:49,320
pricked me twice.

237
00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:50,960
And I had been told
by the hunters that it

238
00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:52,240
starts burning immediately,

239
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:55,800
and I immediately
felt it burning like crazy.

240
00:21:56,360 --> 00:21:57,760
It was burning badly.

241
00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:00,000
You didn't cut off
your hand or your finger.

242
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:01,200
You still have it.

243
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:02,800
Yeah, so,
luckily, in the lab,

244
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:04,040
there was a tap right there.

245
00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:05,280
I took the latex glove off.

246
00:22:05,360 --> 00:22:06,920
I had my finger under the tap,

247
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:09,600
and I was making sure
that no blood could come out.

248
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:12,560
And I just kept doing this
repeatedly and letting it bleed

249
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,360
into the basin, flushing it,
flushing it, flushing it,

250
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:18,160
so, 'cause once it gets
into your bloodstream,

251
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,120
it will go up your arm.

252
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:22,880
And, generally, the only way
to save yourself is to cut

253
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:26,240
yourself all the way up
so that it can bleed out

254
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,280
as much as possible
before it reaches your heart.

255
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,000
What kind
of poison is it?

256
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:33,520
It's a nerve poison
or what is it?

257
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:35,000
It actually works
in several different ways.

258
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:37,640
So the grubs actually
are a hemolytic poison,

259
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:39,840
which means they break
down red blood cells.

260
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,280
So what happens is, the animal,
you can actually see in its

261
00:22:43,360 --> 00:22:47,480
urine, the urine actually
turns black because that's

262
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,000
all the broken red blood
cells that are now being

263
00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:51,720
flushed out of the body.

264
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:53,560
And another part,

265
00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:57,200
what it does is, it actually,
it contains saponins, which,

266
00:22:57,280 --> 00:22:59,840
once the poison
travels to your lungs,

267
00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:02,200
it starts foaming
and making bubbles.

268
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:04,440
And that prevents the animal
from breathing because the

269
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,520
whole air tube and
the nose and nostrils,

270
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,840
I mean, mouth,
fill up with bubbles.

271
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,000
Because his
arrows are poisoned,

272
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,000
Xui's bow is small.

273
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,000
He's one of the
greatest trackers alive.

274
00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:24,480
He can read tracks in the sand
as we would read a newspaper.

275
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,720
But he reads with
all his senses.

276
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,560
He hears
a bird alarmed,

277
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,000
and this tells him a
leopard might be nearby.

278
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,560
He sniffs the air
for the scent of elephants.

279
00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,080
He senses
the ground vibrating from

280
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,000
the hooves of
fleeing roan antelopes.

281
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:25,320
Xui is very good
at imitating a small antelope

282
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,520
in distress in order
to attract the mother.

283
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:32,600
The danger is, he could
attract a leopard as well.

284
00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:35,440
Yes you have
to move very carefully

285
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:37,920
before you make that sound.

286
00:24:39,360 --> 00:24:41,720
{\an8}Kerllen Costa
is Angolan.

287
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:45,320
{\an8}He dreamt of a career as a
professional soccer player,

288
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,080
but then he became
an anthropologist.

289
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,520
I was born
and raised in Angola.

290
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,600
Most of my childhood was
spent during the height of the

291
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,280
Angolan Civil War.

292
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,280
Because my father was an
helicopter pilot for the army,

293
00:25:00,360 --> 00:25:03,680
I spent a lot of hours
beside him in the cockpit

294
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,280
of his helicopter,
not only fighting in the war,

295
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:09,720
but trying to run away and
make sure his family was safe.

296
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:12,000
And on these journeys,

297
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,960
I witnessed and listened
to a lot of stories,

298
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,240
a lot of atrocities that no
human should ever see

299
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,320
nor hear, for that matter.

300
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:26,000
And it really represented the
Angolan Civil War at its highest

301
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:29,720
where helicopters are
machine-gunning elephants

302
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,360
from afar, where boats
with soldiers are rifling

303
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,360
hippos on the river,

304
00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:38,320
where soldiers running
in the middle of the forest are

305
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:41,520
shooting down every single
animal that they can see.

306
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:46,800
This really represents the
divide that resulted between

307
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:50,680
biodiversity and humans,
because it's not only humans

308
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:52,240
that were affected,
for example,

309
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:54,520
from what is one of the
countries most affected

310
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:55,840
by land mines.

311
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:57,120
It's also animals,

312
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,520
because these animals were
being killed by land mines.

313
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,920
They were meant for tanks
and trucks and other things,

314
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,880
but they were being really
destroyed by these land mines.

315
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:09,320
And that's why you see
these Angolan refugees,

316
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:11,600
humans and animals,

317
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,040
scattering throughout
the continent.

318
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,960
And this seems to be
a worldwide trend,

319
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:20,240
it's not just Angola,

320
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:24,960
where you see humans
fighting against creation.

321
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:29,320
And this was witnessed
also in America, for example,

322
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:31,080
in the late 1800s,

323
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:35,240
where the trains would go
through the heart of America

324
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:38,840
very slowly, and with
people inside it just shooting

325
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,280
at buffaloes and
everything that they could see.

326
00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,840
Not to eat, but just for
the sake of shooting.

327
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:49,280
As if man is on a mission to
destroy what he is part of,

328
00:26:49,360 --> 00:26:51,920
what he is part of, his
essence, which is life,

329
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:54,080
which is biodiversity.

330
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,680
This is also represented
by the Fenykovi elephant,

331
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:02,880
which was shot by Fenykovi,
which is, up until now,

332
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,200
the biggest recorded
elephant in the world.

333
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:11,000
This is an Angolan citizen,
an Angolan elephant.

334
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,520
He was shot because
of his majestic-ness,

335
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:16,560
because of his greatness.

336
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:21,320
And it seems like this
greatness is what causes not

337
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:25,640
just this elephant but all
other living beings to be

338
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,000
destroyed by humans.

339
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:36,920
{\an8}This material is
from the 1966 Italian film

340
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:38,960
{\an8}"Africa Addio."

341
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:41,360
{\an8}At this time,

342
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:43,560
big-game
hunting was still fashionable.

343
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:40,200
Today, our respect for
nature has changed.

344
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:45,280
Even a huge fallen tree
has its local guardians.

345
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,520
We have
the permission of the guardians

346
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,440
to visit this
incredible baobab,

347
00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:57,040
1,000 years old.

348
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:01,200
The ground trodden by the
elephants that move around here

349
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:04,200
looking for parts of
the baobab to feed on,

350
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:07,400
like this over here.

351
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:10,280
You can see their
tracks from days ago.

352
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:23,480
You can see here,
that's the bull.

353
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:26,680
It's about 50 centimeters.

354
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:30,200
And if you take the
longest diameter and

355
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:32,480
multiply it by seven,
you'll get his shoulder height.

356
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,280
So he is nine foot tall,

357
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:38,640
very big bull on the
edge of the breeding herd

358
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:40,320
as they feed here.

359
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,560
Not part of them,
here to visit with them.

360
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:49,120
But now the Fenykovi
elephant in the Smithsonian,

361
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:53,280
the largest living land
animal ever recorded,

362
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:59,320
its footprint was, that big.

363
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:03,680
{\an8}You can see now,
compared to this.

364
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:08,120
This is his front foot
carrying the bulk of his head

365
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:09,840
and his tusks.

366
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:13,520
Now, the first footprint
that Fenykovi found,

367
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:19,520
{\an8}Josef Fenykoevi, was another,
50 centimeters.

368
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:22,920
{\an8}So that foot was this big.

369
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,440
Now, he thought
this was something new,

370
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:33,800
a mammoth, a mastodon.

371
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:36,680
{\an8}An elephant like
Africa's, never seen,

372
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:38,600
{\an8}the world has never seen.

373
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:41,640
{\an8}This he found on his
first expedition in 1955.

374
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:45,760
They found two bulls
together under a tree.

375
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:51,360
They put 17 high-caliber
rounds into the biggest one,

376
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,720
the Fenykoevi, as he turned
out to be called, Henry.

377
00:32:56,960 --> 00:32:58,800
They pursued him for 15
kilometers in a Jeep with the

378
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:02,760
trackers until he collapsed.

379
00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:05,040
And then, upon skinning him,

380
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:09,760
they found that
he had a flintlock round

381
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:12,800
in his thigh, in
his front thigh.

382
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:14,440
Now, these were
typically given in the

383
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,040
18th and 19th centuries
to tribal leaders,

384
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,640
to kings for their support of
the ivory and the slave trade

385
00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:22,920
in that part of
Africa, Portuguese.

386
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,680
So this elephant at this size,

387
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:29,440
must have been
over 100 years old.

388
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,040
An elephant that no one had
ever imagined could exist,

389
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:38,200
an elephant, that we don't
understand today as it stands

390
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:40,040
there in the museum,

391
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,800
an elephant that may
be a new subspecies.

392
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:45,400
When we talk to
the Luchaze today,

393
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:47,560
they've told us of
these elephants,

394
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:49,040
the ones that they've seen,

395
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:50,880
encountering forest
elephants with red eyes.

396
00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:54,560
So we really don't know.

397
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:59,240
And I'm here to seek help,

398
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:01,560
the same help
that Fenykovi had,

399
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:05,840
Khoisan Bushmen master
trackers to help us,

400
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,800
Kerllen and the Luchaze,
find the Fenykoevi,

401
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:12,600
find Henry, find the
descendants of Henry.

402
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:15,920
Get tissue samples that
we can compare to what we

403
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,640
have in the Smithsonian,
because in the Smithsonian,

404
00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:21,760
the skin alone was two
tons when it arrived there.

405
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,600
They used five tons of material
to build the elephant up,

406
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:29,280
but the skull was one
- and-a-half times bigger

407
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:31,600
than any skull on
record in any museum.

408
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:34,880
And the tusks were
too heavy, their bulk,

409
00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:37,600
to mount onto the exhibit,
so those are in storage.

410
00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:41,160
We can extract ancient DNA
from those for comparison to

411
00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:42,680
what we find today.

412
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:48,600
What is interesting
is how the media reported about

413
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:50,320
this hunt at the time.

414
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:55,560
Here to the left, Fenykovi
poses in front of his trophy.

415
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:01,000
It was <i>Sports Illustrated</i>
that celebrated the sportsman

416
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:04,080
who had set a new world record.

417
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,480
Fenykovi took
meticulous measurements.

418
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:12,000
Here, his sketch with all
the detailed dimensions.

419
00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:15,480
On the top right,

420
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:19,760
he includes a sworn statement
to the correctness of his data.

421
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,840
The emphasis is on the
proof of the new record that

422
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:29,080
has never been
surpassed to this day.

423
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,280
Ghost elephants are
these last great giants,

424
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:45,920
living in these
high-altitude forests.

425
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,000
We don't find elephants
over 1,200 meters.

426
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:50,680
They're up there in the sky.

427
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:54,080
I mean, the terra do
fim do mundo,

428
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,720
the Lisima lya Mwono,

429
00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:00,040
Source of Life, it's this,
it's this place.

430
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:04,480
It's the Kalahari but raised
into the sky like a temple.

431
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:11,600
I-it's, it's, under it is a,
I don't, what do they call it,

432
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:14,480
a kimberlite supercluster.

433
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:16,480
It's diamonds and
rare earth minerals,

434
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:19,320
and gold coming up and
pushing it into the sky.

435
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:22,400
There is a free-air
gravity anomaly.

436
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:23,800
This means gravity
is too much there.

437
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:25,600
What's coming up is
coming up too fast.

438
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:29,360
It's raised this desert
into the sky where it's

439
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:30,840
formed mist belts.

440
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:33,200
So every morning it's misty
over these lakes that are not

441
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:35,720
meant to be there.

442
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,440
It's a place for
lost things, like us.

443
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:43,120
It's filled with real
magic, whatever that is.

444
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:46,720
I've been to the place where
an entire river disappears into

445
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:48,440
the ground, or I don't
know where it went,

446
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:51,320
a raging river into
a dark channel.

447
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,840
I've heard people
saying that finding the

448
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:12,920
elephants means
finding ourselves.

449
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,600
But do we really learn
anything from them?

450
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:20,840
I'm not gonna learn
anything from a ghost elephant.

451
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:23,320
Um...

452
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,040
...maybe it's better
staying as a dream.

453
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:33,440
Um, but it's something we chase,
dreams, as humans.

454
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:35,200
We share dreams with each other.

455
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:40,840
And maybe if this stayed as a
dream for the rest of my life,

456
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,120
go up there once a year in
September to the springs they

457
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:44,280
say that they come to,

458
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:46,880
sitting there quietly,
like Vundumtiki,

459
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:51,760
maybe that's better.

460
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:48,960
Tell us how
ancient the San people are.

461
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:54,360
Okay, as a scientist,
there is the principle of

462
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:57,000
greatest genetic diversity.

463
00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:00,760
And that gives the
Kalahari San, the Bushmen,

464
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:06,960
uh, the greatest time depth,
so, they are the first people.

465
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:13,160
We, all of us, are the
descendants of a small founding

466
00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:17,680
population of
Kalahari San Bushmen,

467
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:22,000
that survived the Ice Age,

468
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:26,000
hiding ostrich eggs
in the desert,

469
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:31,240
hunting with poison,
and where to walk out.

470
00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:35,320
Some went north,
some south to the coast.

471
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:37,120
And you follow the genetics,

472
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:39,160
they walked the coastline
all the way to Australia,

473
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:42,120
because the next genetic
markers are the Aborigine

474
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:43,480
peoples of Australia.

475
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,040
So how quickly they
walked straightaway,

476
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:47,800
and then the rest of the world.

477
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:49,280
In other words,

478
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,000
we are the direct
descendants of them.

479
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:54,080
They are our direct ancestors.

480
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:56,480
Yes.

481
00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:02,000
Um, to think of them as
being different is, uh, bizarre,

482
00:40:02,720 --> 00:40:04,240
if people do.

483
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:07,600
They are the awakening of us,

484
00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:09,800
the awakening of the human soul.

485
00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:16,480
The dancing, the ritual,
the culture, the knowledge,

486
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,280
fire and stone,
bow and arrow,

487
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:23,360
medicine and poison.

488
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:25,960
Technology starts
developing here.

489
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,280
This is us.

490
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:39,880
The society of
the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen is

491
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:41,960
completely egalitarian.

492
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:47,280
Xui has hunted a kudu,
but he, the provider,

493
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:49,080
does not brag about it.

494
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:53,360
He rather puts himself down
and belittles his haul.

495
00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:00,240
The women make a
show of ignoring him.

496
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,880
The boy here, Xui's son,
will distribute the meat.

497
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:28,720
Life here is in
many ways ancestral,

498
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:33,400
although the San Bushmen
use cell phones with ease.

499
00:42:57,720 --> 00:43:00,320
But I recognize myself.

500
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:04,080
Having a good talk with your
son at the end of a day,

501
00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:10,720
getting up in the morning
without fixed plans or duties.

502
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:19,280
Time does not seem to occur.

503
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:47,840
This elder of Nhoma village
spends much of his day fixing

504
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:49,800
his musical instrument.

505
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:55,520
I know I should not
romanticize this, but I feel,

506
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:57,880
surrounded by chickens,

507
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:00,800
it cannot get any
better than this.

508
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:39,760
- Hi.
- How's it going?

509
00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:42,680
Our three
Namibian trackers are spread out

510
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:44,360
in different villages.

511
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:47,360
For scientific support,

512
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:50,160
a visitor arrives
in Xui's village.

513
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:56,600
This is Jordana Meyer, a
specialist in DNA biodiversity.

514
00:44:57,440 --> 00:44:59,440
She's come here to
give training to the

515
00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:01,120
team of trackers.

516
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:06,320
{\an8}So we want to get
those outer cells,

517
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:10,400
{\an8}the outer DNA that's left
behind from the elephant.

518
00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:11,720
{\an8}And we swab,

519
00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:14,040
you might know from COVID,
the little swab.

520
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:15,800
- Mm-hmm.
- I'll show you in the field

521
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:17,560
now when we find
some elephant dung.

522
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:20,200
- Mm-hmm.
- But we'll swab the outside.

523
00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:23,400
And then we put that into
this small vial like this.

524
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:28,360
And, again, same fluid,
liquid that preserves the DNA.

525
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:32,800
And then that will tell
us if this elephant is

526
00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:35,440
maybe from Angola.

527
00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:40,760
Yeah.

528
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:44,320
We might be
testing these darts.

529
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:47,800
And what this is doing is
taking a tiny piece of tissue

530
00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:49,920
from the elephant.

531
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:51,000
Mm-hmm.

532
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,960
Hopefully, and then we
will take that little piece,

533
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:55,920
and we'll put it into
here to preserve.

534
00:45:56,400 --> 00:45:58,560
This device
appears promising...

535
00:45:58,640 --> 00:45:59,920
Bull's-eye.

536
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:02,240
...but later in
the Angolan highlands,

537
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:03,760
it will prove useless.

538
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:10,280
The team now ventures
out to find a dung sample of

539
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:12,280
the local elephant population.

540
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:15,640
We're
collecting two things.

541
00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:18,760
One is going to be
from the inside.

542
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:21,440
And we want it from the inside
because it's not contaminated.

543
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:23,320
Like we did yesterday,

544
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:26,040
I'm going to have one
person hold this for me.

545
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:28,000
- Ah.
- Take the lid off.

546
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:29,360
Hold it.

547
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:32,080
I'm going to break it in
and then put it back on.

548
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:33,600
This is called DNA Shield.

549
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:35,800
It's a preservative
for the DNA,

550
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:39,120
so that once it's in there,
it's actually very stable.

551
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:41,160
Okay?

552
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,080
Until it looks
something like this, okay?

553
00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:46,400
So everybody can see?

554
00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:47,800
- Mm-hmm.
- Quite dirty.

555
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:49,160
Get it quite poopy.

556
00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:51,000
All right, then we open.

557
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:55,240
And then we very carefully,
there's a breakpoint on here.

558
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:58,000
And it just breaks
off by itself, okay?

559
00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:05,120
But this is
what the app will look like.

560
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:08,800
And then we can go
through recording all of

561
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:10,160
the information here.

562
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:15,280
- Yes, please.
- See how that goes.

563
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:20,160
Oh, you did it already.

564
00:47:20,240 --> 00:47:21,920
- Yeah.
- All right.

565
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:30,360
Why are we doing this?

566
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:36,000
We looked for the ghost
elephants and failed.

567
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:38,960
Helicopters, camera traps,
hundreds of them.

568
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:42,920
Acoustic sensors
listening for them.

569
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:44,080
Still never seen one.

570
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:46,120
We've got 62 photographs now.

571
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:49,680
Took us seven years to
get the first photograph.

572
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,920
We're here seeking the help of
the Ju/’hoansi master trackers,

573
00:48:05,720 --> 00:48:07,760
Xui, Xui Dawid, Kobus,

574
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:11,760
three of the last
master trackers alive,

575
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:14,080
the last people that
can identify an elephant

576
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:19,360
individually by its footprints,
that can read this landscape

577
00:48:19,720 --> 00:48:21,600
and the sands up in Angola.

578
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:23,720
The sands in the highlands,
those are Kalahari sands,

579
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:25,080
same as these.

580
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:26,920
They can read them
like a newspaper.

581
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:32,120
And it's with them, this year,
over the next six weeks,

582
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:36,840
two months that we are
going to see a ghost elephant,

583
00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:38,440
a giant elephant,

584
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:42,080
and the legendary elephants
the Luchaze hunters talk about

585
00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:44,520
in the remotest valleys
of the Source of Life,

586
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:47,440
the Lisima lya Mwono,

587
00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:50,040
with these Ju/’hoansi
master trackers.

588
00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:53,120
That's what we're doing here.

589
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:49,360
I'm going to Angola,
and everyone say it's good.

590
00:49:50,080 --> 00:49:51,920
And everyone is happy.

591
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:55,600
My wife she is not say
goodbye when you go to Angola.

592
00:49:56,320 --> 00:50:00,760
Just work nice, and I will
see you when you come back.

593
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:36,440
In Nhoma,
the village of Kobus,

594
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:39,840
Angolan trackers
of the Luchaze tribe

595
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:41,560
join the expedition.

596
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:46,120
They will play an
important role from now on

597
00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:48,240
as guides in their homeland,

598
00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:51,560
in the highlands where
the ghost elephants hide.

599
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:54,000
We're with the Angolans.

600
00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:55,080
We will be very safe.

601
00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:56,840
Yeah.

602
00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:06,120
We are going
to Angola today, and, um,

603
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:10,640
so we will be saying goodbye.

604
00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:23,000
The village chief,

605
00:51:23,080 --> 00:51:26,800
here to the left of Kobus,
gives permission and his

606
00:51:26,880 --> 00:51:28,960
blessing for Kobus to leave.

607
00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:12,280
For Xui
and the San trackers,

608
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:14,960
this is a big unknown now.

609
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:21,200
The presence of the Angolan
hunters eases the uncertainty

610
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:25,720
for Kobus and Xui Dawid as
they enter terra incognita.

611
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:31,640
The border of Angola marks
the outer limit of their world.

612
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:11,480
The expedition now enters
an area that used to be a

613
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:15,760
battlefield in the
Angolan Civil War that raged

614
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:17,600
for 27 years.

615
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:47,240
In the town of Kuito,

616
00:54:47,320 --> 00:54:51,800
Steve Boyes meets a convoy
of the foundation Lisima,

617
00:54:52,720 --> 00:54:57,120
an NGO that he established
for long-term conservation

618
00:54:57,200 --> 00:54:58,880
in Angola.

619
00:55:03,080 --> 00:55:06,880
Here, the convoy swells
to nine vehicles,

620
00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:10,880
two support trucks with
armor plating for land mines,

621
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:16,680
and 12 motorbikes, all
in logistical support of

622
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:19,400
the search camp
they will establish.

623
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:47,920
The convoy is
headed for the town of Cangamba

624
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:51,760
to have an audience with
the king of the Nkangala.

625
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:58,240
The king's
spirit meets them.

626
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:10,200
{\an8}Um, I request permission
to approach the king to

627
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:11,640
{\an8}give him two gifts.

628
00:57:13,240 --> 00:57:15,320
I'd like to show
you two pictures,

629
00:57:16,120 --> 00:57:19,200
one of an elephant that
is in Washington, D.C.,

630
00:57:19,280 --> 00:57:21,040
capital of the United States,

631
00:57:21,640 --> 00:57:23,920
and the skull of
the elephant on the right

632
00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:26,400
that is held there.

633
00:57:27,040 --> 00:57:30,680
We believe that the last
hiding place for the descendants

634
00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:33,160
of this elephant
is in this area.

635
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:37,600
And we saw the
trails for bull elephants,

636
00:57:37,680 --> 00:57:39,760
one very big one.

637
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:42,360
And that is the
reason we are here,

638
00:57:42,440 --> 00:57:44,760
to understand this animal.

639
00:58:06,240 --> 00:58:08,360
We would request
your assistance in making this

640
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:10,760
onto an arrow much bigger,

641
00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:14,440
a much bigger bow to be far
away from the elephants.

642
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:18,160
And I can bring this to
you now so that you can see

643
00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:21,120
that it is not an arrowhead.

644
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:23,280
It is simply something
that will go this far into

645
00:58:23,360 --> 00:58:25,920
the skin and fall out.

646
00:58:34,600 --> 00:58:35,960
Put it
right there in the front.

647
00:58:36,040 --> 00:58:37,680
He'll pick it up
and have a look.

648
00:58:37,760 --> 00:58:39,200
Okay.

649
00:59:36,600 --> 00:59:39,640
It's a special knife
inherited by the Luchaze with

650
00:59:39,720 --> 00:59:41,920
geometry that they've created.

651
00:59:42,360 --> 00:59:46,040
This is the same as that
amulet that he has in his hand.

652
00:59:46,360 --> 00:59:48,960
It's for protection,
not physical protection,

653
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:51,000
but spiritual protection.

654
00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:56,360
And he's asking if you could,
in the world that you travel,

655
00:59:56,440 --> 01:00:02,000
see if it's possible, to
find something like that,

656
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:05,520
but maybe double the size.

657
01:00:06,200 --> 01:00:07,160
Mm-hmm.

658
01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:10,240
And he would
take that as a symbol

659
01:00:10,320 --> 01:00:12,080
of your respect.

660
01:00:34,360 --> 01:00:38,600
It is seven hard
days of driving from Namibia

661
01:00:38,680 --> 01:00:40,400
to the Angolan highlands.

662
01:00:42,520 --> 01:00:46,320
There are no roads, no
bridges in a landscape,

663
01:00:46,680 --> 01:00:49,600
we have to remember,
the size of England.

664
01:00:50,720 --> 01:00:53,880
The four-wheel drives
have to be left behind.

665
01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:27,920
It is about 100 miles
now on motorbikes,

666
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:30,640
with more river
crossings to come.

667
01:03:19,520 --> 01:03:22,880
{\an8}The locals have encountered
crocodiles at this river.

668
01:03:24,080 --> 01:03:26,440
Steve is apprehensive,

669
01:03:26,520 --> 01:03:29,440
but he has been assured
crocodiles would only

670
01:03:29,520 --> 01:03:31,320
come after nightfall.

671
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:48,200
We are following the
tracks of Luchaze tribesmen

672
01:03:48,960 --> 01:03:52,680
who spend the dry season
here hunting antelopes

673
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:54,640
for meat and skins.

674
01:04:17,880 --> 01:04:20,320
A base camp is set up.

675
01:04:20,400 --> 01:04:23,840
Our Namibian trackers
have settled in well with

676
01:04:23,920 --> 01:04:25,760
the Luchaze tribesmen.

677
01:04:26,480 --> 01:04:27,800
Oh, man.

678
01:04:28,480 --> 01:04:31,720
The motorcycles
have to stay behind now in

679
01:04:31,800 --> 01:04:34,120
order not to disturb
the elephants.

680
01:04:35,960 --> 01:04:39,520
The next 30 miles
must be on foot.

681
01:04:50,560 --> 01:04:53,440
There are first
unmistakable signs of the

682
01:04:53,520 --> 01:04:55,880
presence of elephants.

683
01:04:57,200 --> 01:04:58,560
Yeah, yeah.

684
01:04:58,640 --> 01:05:00,960
The tracks
in the sand are fresh.

685
01:05:10,640 --> 01:05:14,240
Xui has spotted the
track of an individual elephant.

686
01:05:38,560 --> 01:05:41,640
He finds
a tree with recent markings.

687
01:05:43,640 --> 01:05:47,520
The elephant has poked
the bark with his tusk and

688
01:05:47,600 --> 01:05:49,520
then rubbed his
flank against it.

689
01:06:06,360 --> 01:06:09,600
{\an8}Elias Ngunga,
the Luchaze tracker,

690
01:06:10,080 --> 01:06:12,000
{\an8}has found a very
fresh dung sample.

691
01:06:13,600 --> 01:06:15,640
Let's get it
from all over here.

692
01:06:16,840 --> 01:06:18,560
Passes out the rectum.

693
01:06:20,040 --> 01:06:21,880
And look at that.

694
01:06:21,960 --> 01:06:23,720
But we are catching up with him.

695
01:06:24,200 --> 01:06:26,920
There is a high
chance to get a complete

696
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:30,440
DNA sequence
from the mucus on it.

697
01:06:31,560 --> 01:06:33,640
Mainly wood, just wood.

698
01:06:33,960 --> 01:06:37,200
Steve also collects
a sample of the contents

699
01:06:37,280 --> 01:06:40,480
of the dung,
mostly roots and bark.

700
01:06:41,160 --> 01:06:44,520
This will yield
insight into the habitat of

701
01:06:44,600 --> 01:06:46,640
the ghost elephants.

702
01:06:48,920 --> 01:06:52,040
Steve, the scientist,
has to be quick.

703
01:06:52,960 --> 01:06:56,680
He has to share his
treasure with dung beetles,

704
01:06:56,760 --> 01:06:58,760
who appear almost instantly.

705
01:07:08,120 --> 01:07:11,560
The beetle, in turn, has
to compete with flies.

706
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:19,960
The scarabaeus beetle was
sacred to the ancient Egyptians.

707
01:07:20,960 --> 01:07:25,960
It had the task of rolling
the sun across the sky.

708
01:07:34,600 --> 01:07:38,000
The camp closest to
the ghost elephants is

709
01:07:38,080 --> 01:07:40,800
used by Luchaze hunters,

710
01:07:41,440 --> 01:07:45,840
smoking fires and drying
meat of antelopes everywhere.

711
01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:54,400
The arrowhead for collecting
a sample of the skin of

712
01:07:54,480 --> 01:07:57,320
a ghost elephant is
being made ready.

713
01:08:32,360 --> 01:08:34,600
{\an8}This
is Antonio Luhoke,

714
01:08:34,680 --> 01:08:38,240
{\an8}the Luchaze hunter who
has accompanied Steve on

715
01:08:38,320 --> 01:08:40,480
many prior expeditions.

716
01:09:03,320 --> 01:09:07,320
Next day,
traces of a very, very large

717
01:09:07,400 --> 01:09:09,080
elephant were found.

718
01:09:25,080 --> 01:09:26,880
This one here.
Here, try that one.

719
01:09:35,000 --> 01:09:37,040
That's
the highest point.

720
01:09:37,600 --> 01:09:39,200
Yes.

721
01:09:39,280 --> 01:09:41,240
Wow.
There's a big rubbing.

722
01:09:43,560 --> 01:09:45,240
Is that the shoulder height?

723
01:09:50,800 --> 01:09:53,640
So that's,
nine, ten foot.

724
01:09:53,720 --> 01:09:55,400
That's like a big
elephant in the Okavango,

725
01:09:55,480 --> 01:09:58,080
like that one we saw.

726
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:02,280
But it's the top of
the shoulder or here?

727
01:10:04,080 --> 01:10:05,320
- Under?
- Mm.

728
01:10:05,400 --> 01:10:06,760
So maybe one more foot.

729
01:10:08,200 --> 01:10:12,400
And, is it a,
a male or a female?

730
01:10:18,920 --> 01:10:21,000
It must be a male, a bull.

731
01:10:22,320 --> 01:10:25,520
They believe it's
a herd of 16 elephants.

732
01:10:25,600 --> 01:10:28,600
And there's several big
males walking in front.

733
01:10:28,680 --> 01:10:34,400
One in front and three or
four on the sides protect them.

734
01:10:34,480 --> 01:10:38,000
And there's one or two that
have broken their tusks already.

735
01:10:38,080 --> 01:10:39,280
Mm.

736
01:10:39,360 --> 01:10:41,200
And he believes
this is one of the four

737
01:10:41,280 --> 01:10:42,960
that are on the side,

738
01:10:43,040 --> 01:10:45,320
paving the way
for the herd to come.

739
01:10:45,960 --> 01:10:49,680
They were talking about,
over here, is that height.

740
01:10:50,080 --> 01:10:52,000
And the shoulder.

741
01:10:52,080 --> 01:10:53,880
- Shoulder.
- There.

742
01:10:53,960 --> 01:10:56,800
- Yeah.
- And he's like that.

743
01:10:57,520 --> 01:10:58,960
Oh.

744
01:11:02,520 --> 01:11:03,640
It's a good 11-foot.

745
01:11:03,720 --> 01:11:06,520
I mean, it's bigger than
what we have in Botswana.

746
01:11:06,960 --> 01:11:08,360
What's
standard big in Botswana?

747
01:11:08,440 --> 01:11:10,600
Ten-foot standard.
You don't get bigger.

748
01:11:10,680 --> 01:11:13,080
And that's an eight-ton,
seven-ton elephant.

749
01:11:13,160 --> 01:11:15,920
The Fenykovi was 13 tons.

750
01:11:16,000 --> 01:11:18,400
So, like, you're
talking about a, yeah.

751
01:11:19,200 --> 01:11:20,520
Nine to ten?

752
01:11:20,960 --> 01:11:23,480
Yeah, a nine to
ten-ton elephant, yeah.

753
01:11:25,640 --> 01:11:29,320
Xui and Xui Dawid
discover something else

754
01:11:29,400 --> 01:11:31,360
overlooked by everyone.

755
01:11:39,960 --> 01:11:44,800
This elephant hair will become
part of the forensic evidence.

756
01:12:00,720 --> 01:12:03,480
Xui explains
here how the elephant has

757
01:12:03,560 --> 01:12:05,800
moved into the wet peatland.

758
01:12:10,120 --> 01:12:12,040
He obviously heard us coming.

759
01:12:13,080 --> 01:12:16,840
So it's, since the big rain,
after the small rain,

760
01:12:17,520 --> 01:12:18,560
he walked through here,

761
01:12:18,640 --> 01:12:20,240
and he actually
ran through here.

762
01:12:20,320 --> 01:12:21,760
See this footprint?

763
01:12:21,840 --> 01:12:23,400
And ran, not
along the channel,

764
01:12:23,480 --> 01:12:25,160
straight to where Tony is there.

765
01:12:25,240 --> 01:12:27,000
We've got two cameras,
so I think the first one

766
01:12:27,080 --> 01:12:29,040
will go there.

767
01:12:31,240 --> 01:12:32,760
Okay.

768
01:12:36,840 --> 01:12:38,440
Here or.

769
01:12:38,760 --> 01:12:41,880
As sophisticated
as this contraption is,

770
01:12:42,600 --> 01:12:45,320
it never captured any
of the ghost elephants.

771
01:12:46,880 --> 01:12:50,080
In the end, the
whole thing will come down

772
01:12:50,160 --> 01:12:52,840
to hand-held cell phones.

773
01:13:26,200 --> 01:13:29,720
Among the companions of
the night is this spider.

774
01:13:31,000 --> 01:13:32,560
It is poisonous,

775
01:13:32,640 --> 01:13:36,240
and the young teeming on
its back are equally poisonous.

776
01:14:05,520 --> 01:14:09,640
The spider was weird enough,
but the next morning,

777
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:13,160
I believed I was still
dreaming of demons.

778
01:14:55,440 --> 01:14:58,280
No, it's been, we,
in the beginning,

779
01:14:58,360 --> 01:15:00,480
six days behind him.

780
01:15:00,560 --> 01:15:03,480
One day behind
the breeding herd.

781
01:15:04,160 --> 01:15:06,200
Yesterday, we were right
behind the breeding herd,

782
01:15:06,280 --> 01:15:07,360
literally chasing them.

783
01:15:07,440 --> 01:15:08,720
They're smelling
us with the wind.

784
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:10,600
That's what the team's done,
go around.

785
01:15:10,680 --> 01:15:13,760
Now we are, they're
probably with them.

786
01:15:13,840 --> 01:15:14,760
And we're one hour,

787
01:15:14,840 --> 01:15:16,320
two hours,
three hours behind this guy.

788
01:15:16,400 --> 01:15:17,920
So we're catching up.

789
01:15:19,880 --> 01:15:22,400
But then,
unexpected luck would strike.

790
01:15:23,320 --> 01:15:26,360
Each morning, separate
teams would venture out.

791
01:15:27,320 --> 01:15:30,080
Here, Elias and António.

792
01:15:30,160 --> 01:15:33,640
The camera filmed them
only leaving the camp and

793
01:15:33,720 --> 01:15:36,200
then joined Steve and Kerllen.

794
01:15:36,760 --> 01:15:38,520
I think it was in his pocket.

795
01:15:46,120 --> 01:15:48,640
Suddenly, Elias
and António spot the biggest

796
01:15:48,720 --> 01:15:50,480
of all ghost elephants,

797
01:15:51,520 --> 01:15:54,240
the vague gray shape
between the leaves.

798
01:15:55,480 --> 01:15:59,760
António only has time to
start his cell phone camera.

799
01:15:59,840 --> 01:16:02,880
And then he scrambles to
find a better position.

800
01:16:12,560 --> 01:16:16,160
And now, for seconds only,
we catch a glimpse.

801
01:16:19,800 --> 01:16:22,800
Then the elephant
bull is going away.

802
01:16:26,880 --> 01:16:28,080
They took a picture?

803
01:16:28,160 --> 01:16:29,640
They took a picture.

804
01:16:29,720 --> 01:16:30,960
May I see the picture?

805
01:16:34,960 --> 01:16:36,560
Was this it?

806
01:16:36,960 --> 01:16:39,880
Was this worth the
ten-year search and

807
01:16:39,960 --> 01:16:42,160
the arduous expedition?

808
01:16:43,040 --> 01:16:45,000
Was this the proof?

809
01:16:45,400 --> 01:16:47,320
Was this the truth?

810
01:16:47,920 --> 01:16:51,840
In a way, yes, but the
accountant's truth at best.

811
01:16:53,400 --> 01:16:56,440
Yes, the ghost elephants exist.

812
01:16:56,520 --> 01:17:00,080
We have the forensic proof
because one of them was

813
01:17:00,160 --> 01:17:04,000
captured on an otherwise
disappointing video.

814
01:17:11,560 --> 01:17:12,800
This one?

815
01:17:14,520 --> 01:17:16,840
It was certainly
the biggest elephant bull.

816
01:17:16,920 --> 01:17:21,000
Its shoulder height indicates
that this is the largest known

817
01:17:21,080 --> 01:17:25,880
elephant in Africa and hence,
the largest land mammal

818
01:17:25,960 --> 01:17:27,560
on our planet.

819
01:17:39,440 --> 01:17:41,600
Two days' rest.

820
01:18:15,480 --> 01:18:18,040
And then
Steve will get lucky.

821
01:18:19,080 --> 01:18:21,040
Just saying to
Gary and Xui that we heard

822
01:18:21,120 --> 01:18:23,920
an elephant up
over this ridge here.

823
01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:25,680
Just gonna go look if
we can see the tracks,

824
01:18:25,760 --> 01:18:27,200
which one it was.

825
01:18:49,880 --> 01:18:52,360
After less
than two hours' march,

826
01:18:52,440 --> 01:18:55,280
the San trackers catch a
glimpse of an elephant.

827
01:19:21,320 --> 01:19:24,440
Our professional camera
stayed slightly behind,

828
01:19:24,840 --> 01:19:28,200
and, thus, what we
see was shot by Steve on

829
01:19:28,280 --> 01:19:29,880
his cell phone.

830
01:20:01,320 --> 01:20:04,040
Xui cautiously shoots his arrow.

831
01:20:24,880 --> 01:20:27,760
They retrieve the tip of
the arrow that was meant

832
01:20:27,840 --> 01:20:30,240
to collect the DNA sample.

833
01:20:31,080 --> 01:20:33,200
Ah. Oh.

834
01:20:44,760 --> 01:20:45,880
I couldn't see it properly.

835
01:20:45,960 --> 01:20:49,320
I think it, I think it bounced
off the elephant or missed it.

836
01:20:50,080 --> 01:20:52,720
But we got, when it hit
the ground, certainly,

837
01:20:52,800 --> 01:20:54,320
it took some sand in.

838
01:20:54,400 --> 01:20:56,160
But the elephant is right here.

839
01:20:58,120 --> 01:20:59,960
I think you said it
came off the rump. Yeah.

840
01:21:00,040 --> 01:21:01,600
Yeah.

841
01:21:05,360 --> 01:21:07,080
How's the elephant now?

842
01:21:08,640 --> 01:21:09,880
It made
the elephant flee,

843
01:21:09,960 --> 01:21:12,120
and so the whole idea
with the arrow was given

844
01:21:12,200 --> 01:21:13,680
up for good.

845
01:21:15,160 --> 01:21:16,840
How it looks.

846
01:21:16,920 --> 01:21:18,640
But Steve
got his reward.

847
01:21:19,200 --> 01:21:20,960
He got his clean shot.

848
01:21:24,040 --> 01:21:26,200
This is the.

849
01:21:42,720 --> 01:21:45,160
Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve!

850
01:21:45,240 --> 01:21:48,600
Xui, still excited,
gives an account of how he

851
01:21:48,680 --> 01:21:51,240
alerted Steve to the elephant.

852
01:21:59,080 --> 01:22:02,320
After the
first excitement had subsided,

853
01:22:02,400 --> 01:22:05,880
Steve was again confronted
with a question whether

854
01:22:05,960 --> 01:22:08,520
it might have been
better never to have

855
01:22:08,600 --> 01:22:10,720
encountered the ghost elephants.

856
01:22:11,960 --> 01:22:15,040
Were they not possibly
better as a rainbow,

857
01:22:15,120 --> 01:22:17,080
as a mirage in the sky?

858
01:22:18,080 --> 01:22:22,160
And yet, he did encounter
one of them for real.

859
01:22:23,040 --> 01:22:25,920
This reality was undeniable.

860
01:22:26,000 --> 01:22:29,360
Steve would have to
live with his success.

861
01:22:34,280 --> 01:22:36,120
This is the one by himself.

862
01:22:37,240 --> 01:22:39,760
In the water tower,
in this place.

863
01:22:43,680 --> 01:22:46,960
And another
reality set in, the rain.

864
01:22:48,520 --> 01:22:52,480
The expedition would have to
return before the peatlands and

865
01:22:52,560 --> 01:22:55,520
rivers would become impassable.

866
01:22:56,600 --> 01:22:58,520
The Source of Life, huh?

867
01:23:28,000 --> 01:23:32,120
Now the time had come
to return and secure the loot,

868
01:23:32,960 --> 01:23:36,440
the biological samples
of the ghost elephants.

869
01:23:38,440 --> 01:23:42,400
The Smithsonian had given
permission to extract a DNA

870
01:23:42,480 --> 01:23:47,400
sample from Henry in order to
compare it with Steve's samples.

871
01:23:50,160 --> 01:23:52,840
Now, where will we
be taking the sample from?

872
01:23:53,560 --> 01:23:57,080
I think we'll aim for
somewhere around here or in, uh,

873
01:23:57,160 --> 01:23:58,760
{\an8}where the tusks are from.

874
01:23:58,840 --> 01:24:00,160
{\an8}And I'll collect the samples,

875
01:24:00,240 --> 01:24:02,160
{\an8}but I'll have to get
my team in to help.

876
01:24:02,240 --> 01:24:05,320
{\an8}Melissa Hawkins
was assigned to this task.

877
01:24:05,840 --> 01:24:08,280
{\an8}I'll stand back,
and thank you for doing this.

878
01:24:08,760 --> 01:24:09,880
Okay, great.

879
01:24:11,720 --> 01:24:15,080
{\an8}Mary Faith Flores
will assist her through

880
01:24:15,160 --> 01:24:16,480
{\an8}the next steps.

881
01:24:18,000 --> 01:24:20,280
At the base of
one of the molars,

882
01:24:20,840 --> 01:24:23,760
she was able to
find tissue that,

883
01:24:23,840 --> 01:24:26,120
even after 70 years,

884
01:24:26,200 --> 01:24:28,680
was still fresh enough
to be promising.

885
01:24:31,960 --> 01:24:35,480
The next procedures
have to be performed in a

886
01:24:35,560 --> 01:24:38,560
completely sterile environment.

887
01:24:40,080 --> 01:24:43,520
These here are Henry's
tissue samples.

888
01:24:44,560 --> 01:24:48,200
Melissa and Mary will
extract the DNA here.

889
01:24:52,800 --> 01:24:57,320
And now Steve delivers mucus
and dung samples from the ghost

890
01:24:57,400 --> 01:25:02,080
elephants to Katherine Solari
of Stanford University.

891
01:25:03,640 --> 01:25:06,360
In the background,
Dmitri Petrov,

892
01:25:06,440 --> 01:25:10,200
the mastermind behind
Stanford's genomic programs.

893
01:25:10,880 --> 01:25:13,440
These samples are
literally out of the elephant,

894
01:25:14,080 --> 01:25:15,520
just a few weeks ago.

895
01:25:15,600 --> 01:25:20,000
Um, four of them, five of
them are from the actual

896
01:25:20,080 --> 01:25:21,800
ghost elephant bull.

897
01:25:22,520 --> 01:25:24,880
So I'm going to hand them over.

898
01:25:25,400 --> 01:25:26,560
But you see, um,

899
01:25:26,640 --> 01:25:29,880
this is one of the
ones from the bull itself.

900
01:25:29,960 --> 01:25:31,320
Perfect.

901
01:25:31,400 --> 01:25:34,880
{\an8}We're just gonna bead-bash
it in order to open up all

902
01:25:34,960 --> 01:25:37,000
{\an8}of the cells and release
all of the DNA so that we

903
01:25:37,080 --> 01:25:38,400
{\an8}can see everything
that's in there,

904
01:25:38,960 --> 01:25:40,040
what they're eating,

905
01:25:40,120 --> 01:25:43,720
as well as samples from
the DNA of the elephant.

906
01:25:54,160 --> 01:25:55,800
This is the sequencing machine.

907
01:25:55,880 --> 01:25:57,760
And it's very
state-of-the-art,

908
01:25:57,840 --> 01:25:59,800
worth well over a
million dollars.

909
01:25:59,880 --> 01:26:02,360
This is where our
ghost elephant samples will go?

910
01:26:02,440 --> 01:26:03,400
Yes, exactly.

911
01:26:03,480 --> 01:26:04,680
This is where they'll end up.

912
01:26:04,760 --> 01:26:08,080
They'll go through a number of
steps from what we saw earlier

913
01:26:08,400 --> 01:26:11,280
to end up on here, but
this is where they end up and

914
01:26:11,360 --> 01:26:12,640
where the data is generated.

915
01:26:13,240 --> 01:26:17,320
And this machine creates
six billion sequencing reads.

916
01:26:17,800 --> 01:26:19,320
Six billion.

917
01:26:19,400 --> 01:26:22,600
So 6,000 million DNA sequences.

918
01:26:22,680 --> 01:26:24,040
- It's a lot of data.
- Yeah?

919
01:26:24,120 --> 01:26:26,400
So I have it
set up here to show you.

920
01:26:26,480 --> 01:26:28,680
So, here, each line is a read.

921
01:26:28,760 --> 01:26:30,080
This is 150.

922
01:26:30,160 --> 01:26:33,080
- That's a lot of letters.
- Letters long. And then.

923
01:26:33,160 --> 01:26:36,760
So you're talking about
six billion of these lines?

924
01:26:37,120 --> 01:26:38,280
- Six billion.
- Outputted by this machine.

925
01:26:38,360 --> 01:26:40,440
- Exactly.
- From the elephant-dung samples.

926
01:26:40,520 --> 01:26:42,880
- Exactly.
- This is mitochondrial?

927
01:26:42,960 --> 01:26:45,200
- This is all DNA.
- All DNA?

928
01:26:45,280 --> 01:26:46,640
It's just everything
that's in there?

929
01:26:46,720 --> 01:26:48,760
And what are you going
to do with this data?

930
01:26:48,840 --> 01:26:52,280
So this is an
example of that data a little

931
01:26:52,360 --> 01:26:53,400
bit more processed.

932
01:26:53,480 --> 01:26:55,800
So here it's all
aligned and mapped.

933
01:26:55,880 --> 01:26:56,960
Okay.

934
01:26:57,040 --> 01:26:59,400
And here, you
can see this is one elephant.

935
01:26:59,480 --> 01:27:00,880
This is a second elephant.

936
01:27:00,960 --> 01:27:04,120
To find the anomalies,
here marked in yellow,

937
01:27:04,920 --> 01:27:06,560
would be impossible for humans.

938
01:27:07,600 --> 01:27:12,800
From the billions of lines, a
computer program identifies the

939
01:27:12,880 --> 01:27:14,920
differences between
two specimens.

940
01:27:15,920 --> 01:27:18,880
Elephant down here
versus this elephant up here.

941
01:27:19,720 --> 01:27:23,120
This is the University
of California, Riverside.

942
01:27:23,960 --> 01:27:27,800
The final step in Steve's
research will be done here to

943
01:27:27,880 --> 01:27:32,480
compare the DNA of the
ghost elephant's with Henry

944
01:27:32,560 --> 01:27:34,520
and other lineages.

945
01:27:34,600 --> 01:27:35,800
Steve, hi.

946
01:27:35,880 --> 01:27:37,920
This leads
him to Ellie Armstrong.

947
01:27:38,000 --> 01:27:39,320
- Great to see you.
- Good to meet you in person.

948
01:27:39,400 --> 01:27:40,880
I brought
something out for you.

949
01:27:40,960 --> 01:27:41,920
Thank you very much.

950
01:27:42,000 --> 01:27:43,120
It's 'cause I knew
you were coming.

951
01:27:43,200 --> 01:27:45,640
Well, you knew that
we went to Smithsonian.

952
01:27:45,720 --> 01:27:46,640
Absolutely.

953
01:27:46,720 --> 01:27:49,080
And we dug around
just below the teeth,

954
01:27:49,160 --> 01:27:50,440
took out some tissue.

955
01:27:50,520 --> 01:27:55,280
And the objective is to compare
that to the fresh samples

956
01:27:55,640 --> 01:27:57,200
I brought from Angola.

957
01:27:57,280 --> 01:27:59,320
What we'll be able to
do with these is really be

958
01:27:59,400 --> 01:28:01,440
{\an8}able to trace the history
of these elephants.

959
01:28:01,520 --> 01:28:03,200
{\an8}So, with the historic specimen,

960
01:28:03,280 --> 01:28:05,160
{\an8}there are some things
that we know about it,

961
01:28:05,240 --> 01:28:06,360
{\an8}like where it was collected,

962
01:28:06,440 --> 01:28:07,800
{\an8}but there are some
things that we obviously

963
01:28:07,880 --> 01:28:08,880
don't know about it,

964
01:28:08,960 --> 01:28:10,440
especially in relation
to the elephants that you've

965
01:28:10,520 --> 01:28:12,200
collected from Angola.

966
01:28:12,280 --> 01:28:15,280
And so what we'll be able to
tell is what population this

967
01:28:15,360 --> 01:28:16,600
elephant was from,

968
01:28:16,680 --> 01:28:19,680
whether it was more
related to forest elephants

969
01:28:19,760 --> 01:28:22,360
or other species of elephants,
or how different it is from the

970
01:28:22,440 --> 01:28:23,840
elephants that we're
currently seeing.

971
01:28:23,920 --> 01:28:25,840
I've interacted with thousands
of elephants in my life.

972
01:28:25,920 --> 01:28:26,960
Mm-hmm.

973
01:28:27,040 --> 01:28:28,240
I've never seen
elephants like this.

974
01:28:28,320 --> 01:28:29,960
They've got long legs.
They're very tall.

975
01:28:30,040 --> 01:28:32,040
They've got small feet
compared to their size.

976
01:28:32,120 --> 01:28:34,000
They live at altitude.

977
01:28:34,080 --> 01:28:37,560
I mean, if you were to take
a savanna elephant nor a bush

978
01:28:37,640 --> 01:28:40,160
elephant from the Okavango
Delta and put them up there,

979
01:28:40,240 --> 01:28:41,520
they would not survive.

980
01:28:41,600 --> 01:28:44,560
I mean, is it crazy to
think that they are, like a,

981
01:28:44,640 --> 01:28:47,200
not a subspecies or, um.

982
01:28:50,120 --> 01:28:52,400
- Yeah, they're.
- Something completely different?

983
01:28:52,480 --> 01:28:55,760
We'll be able to trace
that using the genetic DNA.

984
01:28:55,840 --> 01:28:58,120
So we'll be able to understand
whether this is sort of a

985
01:28:58,200 --> 01:29:01,480
lineage that has descended from
some of these historic lineages

986
01:29:01,560 --> 01:29:03,760
that you've been able to sample
at the Smithsonian or whether

987
01:29:03,840 --> 01:29:06,040
this is something that's
totally new and never

988
01:29:06,120 --> 01:29:07,400
has been sampled.

989
01:29:07,480 --> 01:29:09,720
And that's what's so great
with genetic sequencing.

990
01:29:09,800 --> 01:29:12,480
You know, sometimes we get
species that we can't tell them

991
01:29:12,560 --> 01:29:14,000
apart just by looking at them.

992
01:29:14,080 --> 01:29:15,360
But once we look in the genome,

993
01:29:15,440 --> 01:29:17,240
we know that
they're actually distinct.

994
01:29:17,320 --> 01:29:18,520
When we sequence a genome,

995
01:29:18,600 --> 01:29:20,360
we're sequencing about
three billion base pairs

996
01:29:20,440 --> 01:29:21,360
of DNA.

997
01:29:21,440 --> 01:29:23,520
And we have to put this into
supercomputers and then process

998
01:29:23,600 --> 01:29:25,040
all of the data.

999
01:29:25,120 --> 01:29:27,240
Um, so, usually, this
takes on the order of about

1000
01:29:27,320 --> 01:29:28,880
six months to a year.

1001
01:29:28,960 --> 01:29:31,280
Um, and that's because
we have to pull in all of

1002
01:29:31,360 --> 01:29:32,400
the genetic data

1003
01:29:32,480 --> 01:29:34,240
that's already been sequenced
for elephants so that we

1004
01:29:34,320 --> 01:29:37,400
contextualize the data
that you have brought back and

1005
01:29:37,480 --> 01:29:38,800
got for us.

1006
01:29:38,880 --> 01:29:40,480
The first time we do it,
it takes a long time.

1007
01:29:40,560 --> 01:29:42,080
But then the second and
the third time we do it,

1008
01:29:42,160 --> 01:29:43,760
it starts becoming very quick.

1009
01:29:45,000 --> 01:29:48,000
Her findings,
long down the line,

1010
01:29:48,080 --> 01:29:50,680
will be published in
scientific journals.

1011
01:29:53,080 --> 01:29:56,960
I was puzzled by
the array of dead birds

1012
01:29:57,040 --> 01:29:58,720
for scientific research.

1013
01:29:59,720 --> 01:30:03,760
They appeared like Egyptian
mummies in eternal sleep.

1014
01:30:05,360 --> 01:30:08,760
But how can we keep
the dwindling diversity

1015
01:30:08,840 --> 01:30:10,920
of species alive?

1016
01:31:00,200 --> 01:31:04,600
Can the ghost elephants be
kept alive long into the future?

1017
01:31:05,840 --> 01:31:10,720
Policing their survival through
armed rangers has only slowed

1018
01:31:10,800 --> 01:31:14,280
down their dramatic
decline in numbers.

1019
01:31:15,960 --> 01:31:18,560
On his way back
from his expedition,

1020
01:31:18,640 --> 01:31:23,280
Steve had another fascinating
audience with a local king.

1021
01:31:24,440 --> 01:31:29,600
His deep-rooted traditions may
hold the key to the protection

1022
01:31:29,680 --> 01:31:32,520
and survival of the
ghost elephants.

1023
01:31:33,800 --> 01:31:35,600
Everything is formalized.

1024
01:31:36,680 --> 01:31:40,400
First, he grants
permission to hear the report

1025
01:31:40,480 --> 01:31:41,840
of the expedition.

1026
01:31:49,080 --> 01:31:51,280
One of the
king's own hunters,

1027
01:31:51,360 --> 01:31:53,720
who was part of
the expedition,

1028
01:31:53,800 --> 01:31:56,240
narrates the
events day by day.

1029
01:32:19,920 --> 01:32:22,200
And now
the king speaks.

1030
01:32:22,280 --> 01:32:26,360
He reminds us of the elephants
by narrating the origin

1031
01:32:26,440 --> 01:32:28,280
myth of his people.

1032
01:32:40,680 --> 01:32:44,680
Kerllen translates why
elephants belong to the tribe.

1033
01:32:45,720 --> 01:32:47,840
When those
hunters went to hunt,

1034
01:32:48,400 --> 01:32:51,880
there was one small elephant
at the back of the herd.

1035
01:32:52,600 --> 01:32:55,960
This elephant, a small elephant
came to the Kwango River.

1036
01:32:56,440 --> 01:32:58,800
And as it got to the river,

1037
01:32:58,880 --> 01:33:03,040
it started taking off
his skin of elephant.

1038
01:33:04,000 --> 01:33:06,200
And as he took off the skin,

1039
01:33:06,280 --> 01:33:08,400
the hunter could see
that it was a woman.

1040
01:33:09,120 --> 01:33:12,720
And he helped her take off
all of the elephant skin.

1041
01:33:13,640 --> 01:33:14,760
And with the woman,

1042
01:33:14,840 --> 01:33:17,160
he came running all
the way to here,

1043
01:33:17,520 --> 01:33:19,400
the kingdom of the Nkangala.

1044
01:33:19,480 --> 01:33:21,960
He kept that woman as a wife.

1045
01:33:22,640 --> 01:33:24,880
They reproduced with that woman.

1046
01:33:24,960 --> 01:33:28,000
And that's why he's telling
you that the elephants are

1047
01:33:28,080 --> 01:33:29,800
part of the people.

1048
01:33:30,200 --> 01:33:33,280
So that's why you see
that when you ask for

1049
01:33:33,360 --> 01:33:37,200
permission to the king,
before we left,

1050
01:33:38,160 --> 01:33:40,880
because we asked permission,
he kneeled.

1051
01:33:40,960 --> 01:33:43,960
And he did the ritual to
connect to the ancestors,

1052
01:33:44,040 --> 01:33:45,800
asking permission.

1053
01:33:45,880 --> 01:33:48,240
And they allowed you
to see the elephant.

1054
01:33:48,320 --> 01:33:50,240
That's why you managed
to see the elephants.

1055
01:33:50,320 --> 01:33:54,240
Those elephants you will
not see if you do not ask

1056
01:33:54,320 --> 01:33:58,920
permission to the king and
the king to his ancestors.

1057
01:34:00,040 --> 01:34:01,440
Okay.

1058
01:34:16,200 --> 01:34:20,360
Is there hope in the
enduring power of African myth

1059
01:34:20,440 --> 01:34:23,720
that humans and elephants
belong together?

1060
01:34:26,640 --> 01:34:30,080
Will the landscape
enshroud the ghost elephants

1061
01:34:30,160 --> 01:34:32,400
for a long, long time?

1062
01:34:33,680 --> 01:34:35,800
Probably not.

1063
01:34:35,880 --> 01:34:40,000
But the power of traditions
will not easily fade away.

1064
01:34:44,680 --> 01:34:49,320
And what is striking is that
both Steve and the tribal

1065
01:34:49,400 --> 01:34:54,160
elders firmly believe that
if the elephants disappear,

1066
01:34:54,880 --> 01:34:59,080
this would be the harbinger
of our disappearance as well.

1067
01:35:01,240 --> 01:35:04,800
Life would go on but without us.