Original subtitles

NARRATOR: These three young elephants are lucky to be alive.

When they were still babies, their mothers were killed.

Probably by poachers.

If the calves hadn't been rescued,

they'd have perished.

So now these helpless orphans have new mothers,

and they're people.

These elephants and their new caregivers

have developed a deep understanding of one another.

(GROWLING)

The calves will have to learn all life's lessons from their surrogate parents,

if they're to have any hope of returning to the wild.

Nkala is three years old.

He's playful and forever curious.

(LAUGHING)

He lives here in Zambia in a purpose-built elephant nursery

with two older calves, called Musolole and Zambezi.

(GROWLING)

With no natural relatives to look after them,

the orphans are forming a new family.

Like any children, they love to play

and they're good at getting themselves into trouble.

The Lilayi Elephant Nursery is just outside

the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

It's one of only a handful of elephant orphanages in all of Africa.

When the orphans first get here, they're starving and traumatized.

Rachael Murton runs Zambia's Elephant Orphanage Project.

MURTON: When they first join us, when they've just been rescued,

one of the first things we do is let them suckle our fingers,

because a finger is, I guess the closest thing you're going to get to mum, at that point.

And so that becomes a huge source of comfort to them.

It's a bonding thing, making them feel secure.

(LAUGHS) And so that's what they like to do.

NARRATOR: The nursery was built close to Lusaka

so the orphans can get veterinary care

that would be unavailable if the orphanage was in the wilderness.

All three orphans came from the Zambian bush.

These vast wild tracts that are home to 23,000 elephants.

This is also a stronghold for some of Africa's greatest wildlife.

But people also live here.

Elephants need large territories

and they increasingly overlap

with the growing human population, leading to conflict.

Some elephants like to eat villagers' crops.

Faced with the loss of their food, people often retaliate.

That's not the only reason elephants are killed.

Ivory fetches one-thousand dollars a pound.

But a poachers' pay is so small, that when they shoot an elephant

they don't waste a bullet on their calf.

Elephants are the world's biggest land mammals.

Raising something that will grow this big takes time and dedication.

The orphans have to be bottle-fed every three hours.

Day and night.

Nkala is the latest addition at the orphanage.

Villagers found him in the bush, alone and starving.

He was three months old.

His mother, gone.

Frightened calves are wild animals who often need sedating

before they can be brought to safety.

The keepers were able to treat Nkala physically, but his mental wounds

have taken much longer to heal.

For over a month, Nkala was depressed

and uninterested in his new surroundings.

MURTON: And that is really heartbreaking to see,

because that's like they've really given up.

But the keepers have to be the ones to reassure,

and make them feel loved, make them feel comforted,

just, bit by bit, encourage them to become a bit more normal again.

That, given time, they're able to heal both physically and emotionally.

NARRATOR: Nkala recovers day by day

and he's becoming more and more active and playful.

He's learning how to feed himself.

And to take a bath.

But he still hasn't got the hang of drinking using his trunk.

With no mother for guidance, his answer is to just stick his whole head in the water.

In the wild, elephants make some of the most devoted mothers

in the animal kingdom.

This infant is just a few months old.

Its mother constantly stays in close contact,

guiding and reassuring her calf.

Elephants have the longest gestation of any mammal.

This mother carried her baby through 22 months of pregnancy.

Her investment in her young is enormous.

Her calf will be dependent on her milk for the next four years.

Youngsters need guiding socially until they're teenagers,

and the bond between mothers and offspring lasts a lifetime.

Experiments have shown that elephants can still recognize their mother's smell

even after 30 years of separation.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

It's 11:00 p.m. For the keepers at the nursery,

their day's work is far from over.

Being an elephant's surrogate mother is a demanding job.

This is for Zambezi.

NARRATOR: They must feed the orphans twice in the night.

(GRUNTING)

The young orphans need the constant reassurance of maternal care.

Okay.

Eat.

NARRATOR: The keepers take turns sleeping above the stables.

But they're unlikely to get a quiet night.

Like any children, the young eles don't like settling down.

There's far too much to do.

And at 2:00 a.m., they're hungry again.

No one can get any sleep until the calves have let off steam.

(FARTING)

In the morning, the babies are up early.

A new shift takes over and they let Nkala,

Muso and Bezi out into the big wide world.

The bush around the nursery is the young elephants' classroom.

(GROWLING)

Here, they learn how to find good sources of food

and they get used to other wildlife along the way.

(GROWLING)

This is a safe place for Nkala and the other orphans.

The nursery is in the middle of a 1,600-acre game park.

It's all fenced in, to help protect it from poachers.

The young elephants are voracious eaters.

They greedily chomp all the vegetation they can get their trunks on.

The keepers guide them to the best food.

Walking for four or five hours every morning

helps to build the youngsters' stamina,

something they'll need if they're ever to be released.

In the wild, elephants roam far and wide looking for food.

In arid conditions, herds have to range over hundreds of square miles.

Carrying their bulk over such vast distances is an act of endurance.

(GROWLING)

But elephants have a marvel of natural engineering on their side.

It's their feet.

They actually walk on their tiptoes.

And they have shock absorbers made of cartilage under their heels.

As the elephant's great weight bears down on each foot,

it expands by four inches.

This rhythm of compression and relaxation

helps to pump the blood back up to the heart.

At the nursery, the eles only walk short distances, but it's thirsty work.

It's mid-morning, and it's keeper Elvis's turn to prepare the bottles.

Elephants cannot digest cow's milk,

so the orphanage has had to experiment to perfect the right recipe.

It's based on huge quantities of milk powder made for human babies.

Each calf has a slightly different mixture

tailored to meet its individual nutritional needs.

Warm water and cooked oats are the finishing touch.

NARRATOR: The little herd is still wandering, somewhere out in the game reserve.

I've finished preparing the milk, so you can just proceed, copy.

NARRATOR: Now Elvis has got to find them, before the orphans get too hungry.

Musolole is nearly five, and he's the oldest calf at the orphanage.

He was less than six months old, when his mother

became the latest on a long list of poachers' victims.

Having shot the mother, the poachers also killed

the wildlife protection officer who challenged them

and, as a tribute,

Musolole was named after him.

When he was rescued, he was so weak that the keepers thought he would die.

But, he pulled through and, after four years of constant care,

he's become an incredibly sociable elephant.

(GROWLING)

It's 9:00 a.m. and the orphans know their bottle is due.

Little Nkala can't wait, so Musolole lets him suck an ear.

Nkala misses the reassurance he'd get from suckling his mother.

At last, Musolole's ear gets a rest.

The bottles have arrived.

Whilst the orphans are out, Oliver is taking the opportunity

to do some home improvements.

He moves the logs and branches into new configurations.

The elephants are here a couple of hours a day,

and it's important to keep them stimulated.

Simply moving the furniture gives them something to explore.

Then, Oliver deploys a secret weapon,

essential oils.

NARRATOR: Oliver just needs to put a couple of drops in strategic places.

Garlic essence goes on a log.

And peppermint flavors the water.

Oliver's curious to see how the orphans will react.

The ele's priority is always to have their milk first.

Now, it's time to explore.

Nkala finds the barrel with the peppermint.

The essential oils have different benefits.

Peppermint aids digestion.

Garlic is good for intestinal parasites.

Oliver now smells strongly of both.

And to Zambezi, that makes him very interesting indeed.

(LAUGHING)

(LAUGHING)

NARRATOR: An elephant's sense of smell is four times greater than a bloodhound's.

They have an extra olfactory organ in the roof of their mouths.

Smells are tested with the tip of the trunk

transferring the odor to the mouth.

An elephant's unique nose is handy for a lot more than just sniffing.

The trunk's tip has two prehensile fingers

that can be used for the most delicate tasks.

The trunk is actually a fusion of the nose and the top lip.

It has no bone.

40,000 individual muscles along the trunk's length allow for precise movements.

They work together like a human tongue.

The muscles on one side contract and shorten

whilst those opposite relax and lengthen.

(BLOWING)

This young calf's trunk is still weak and uncoordinated.

She'll have to build skill through practice.

By the time she's fully grown, this youngster will be able to lift

nearly half a tonne with her trunk.

When the African sun is at its highest,

the temperature reaches 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

Elephant skin is up to an inch thick.

Although it's tough, it's also surprisingly sensitive.

To protect themselves from the sun's ultraviolet light,

elephants take mud baths whenever they get the chance.

It's another great use for a trunk.

(TRUMPETING)

The third calf at Lilayi Elephant Nursery is Zambezi.

Staff at a river camp were surprised to find an uninvited guest

splashing about in their swimming pool.

Zambezi had fallen in as he was desperately trying to drink.

He was just one month old.

There was no sign of his mother,

so the orphanage stepped in to save him.

Zambezi is now nearly four and a half and in perfect health.

His idea of fun is wrestling with Musolole.

They're practicing for when they grow up

and have to compete for status and for females.

At the nursery, the little orphans get their health checked every month.

MURTON: Okay, good job Aaron, so he is...

One-thousand, four hundred and forty.

Wow. Okay.

NARRATOR: Zambezi likes suckling so much,

that he doesn't mind that he's only drinking water.

Good boy.

NARRATOR: His keeper squeezes the teat to restrict the flow

and buy everyone some time.

Height, length, girth and tusks are all recorded.

(GROWLING)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

MURTON: Done?

Yep.

NARRATOR: Zambezi weighs 1,440 pounds.

Aaron, jump in.

Elvis.

NARRATOR: The combined weight of all five keepers is only half that.

MURTON: We're way off.

What are we on?

Half.

We're half Zambezi.

(LAUGHING)

NARRATOR: Zambezi and Musolole are making healthy progress.

In a few months, they will be ready for big school.

The Camp Phoenix Release Facility is 220 miles west of Lusaka

in the wilds of central Zambia.

Elephant orphans are transferred here

to start their reintroduction to the wild.

Maramba is a boisterous six-year-old elephant.

He graduated to the release facility last year.

Here, he joined a herd of nine other orphans.

Maramba is beginning to learn to cope on his own,

to rely more on the herd and less on people.

With the other new arrivals, he's being weaned.

His milk watered down bit by bit, until he gradually loses interest in his bottle.

With his new family, Maramba is going on much longer walks.

But this is the wild and there are predators, so a guard follows the young herd.

Today, Maramba seems to have a problem.

He's seeking attention from his keepers and he's looking thin.

When young elephants get ill, they can die quickly, so the vet hurries over.

Dr Ian Parsons is a wildlife specialist.

PARSONS: We're gonna use this.

NARRATOR: He injects Maramba with a light sedative.

(SCOFFS)

It needs a few minutes to take effect.

The team works quickly so Maramba doesn't overheat.

After a thorough examination, Dr Parsons suspects the problem

is caused by a parasite infection.

He takes a blood sample from Maramba's ear.

PARSONS: Okay, let's lower the slide, please.

NARRATOR: Next, he gives an injection to revive him.

They'll have to wait for the test results

before they can make a diagnosis.

The blood results are in.

There's no indication of the life-threatening parasite,

but Maramba is a little anaemic.

Maramba.

NARRATOR: So his keepers put him back on the bottle to build him up again.

Once he is strong enough, Maramba can go on gaining his independence,

and in a few years he'll be joining the other elephants

in the wild, where he belongs.

Two hundred and twenty miles away back at the nursery, it's the afternoon

and it's starting to cool down.

So the orphans head out on their regular stroll.

Little Nkala is copying the older orphans,

learning how to get the best foliage.

They tear off branches...

And push over trees.

Elephants have a greater environmental impact than any other mammal.

except humans.

Given long enough, elephants can do serious damage to woodland

but their continuous pruning thins the forest

and makes it more accessible for other animals.

The trees' tender new growth sprouts from a level where kudu

and impala can reach it.

In the face of the onslaught, some trees have adapted

to protect themselves.

This sapling has red leaves that have super high levels of tannin,

making it unpalatable to elephants.

In the wild, elephants eat for 18 hours a day.

They have to.

Elephants digest less than half their food.

The rest of it goes straight through and out the other end.

That's more than 300 pounds of dung a day.

Their fibrous dung balls show just how incomplete their digestion is.

(GROWLS)

This is great news if you're a baboon.

Their diet is mainly fruit.

(BABOONS SCREECHING)

But fruit contains very little protein.

The half-digested nuts and insects attracted to elephant dung

are a regular feast.

There are no baboons at the nursery, so a lot of dung means a lot of work.

While the orphans are out, the keepers have a chance to clean up.

Like humans, individual elephants have very different personalities

and there's a noticeable difference between their stalls.

The two older orphans are tidy.

There's very little food on Musolole and Zambezi's floor.

And their toilet is neatly by the gate.

Little Nkala is the youngest and his stable is a different matter.

Food and dung are mixed together and spread all over the place.

He's still got a lot to learn.

(FLIES BUZZING)

It's getting late and it's almost time for the orphans to return

to the nursery.

With no mother for protection, the calves are nervous.

They're okay with warthogs.

But for Zambezi, the sight of a zebra is too much to bear.

(TRUMPETING)

Without waiting for the others, he heads for home.

(RADIO CHATTER)

Fortunately, there are no predators in the game park.

And Zambezi gets into his nice clean stall safe and sound.

(GROWLING)

In the wild, a lone calf attracts attention.

Other than humans, lions are the greatest threat to elephants.

This little one would make a hearty feast for an entire pride.

(GROWLING)

Luckily, its mother is far too attentive to leave it in harm's way.

Calves are at risk until they are at least four years old.

(GROWLING)

To protect them, the family moves in unison.

A united front of tusks and trunks is enough intimidation.

(GROANS)

Lionesses aren't the elephant mother's only worry.

Male lions can be as much as 50% larger than females.

When it comes to bigger prey, a male's extra power gives him the edge.

Even a solitary male can kill an elephant calf.

At Lilayi Nursery, the youngest orphans have got a lot to learn

before they'll be ready for the wild.

For now, they just need to keep growing and keep getting stronger.

The new day promises to be hot, so the keepers take the young elephants for a treat.

A couple of miles from the nursery, there's a lake.

The perfect place for a picnic.

A dip in the lake is a great chance to cool off.

Through the constant, dedicated care of their keepers,

the orphans have escaped death,

and their future looks bright.

Musolole and Zambezi have learned all the core skills

the nursery can teach them.

And in a couple of months, they will graduate

to the Camp Phoenix Release Facility.

Then, it will be Nkala's turn to be big brother

to the next orphans rescued from the bush.

He'll help guide them on their journey,

back into the wild.

(TRUMPETING)

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