All language subtitles for In.the.Footsteps.of.Elephant.2020.720p.WEBRip.x264

Botswana in Southern Africa,

home to a third of all Africa's elephants

and the last place on Earth where they are
free to roam vast distances,

as all elephants once did.

Disneynature's documentary film, Elephant,

will tell the story
of these epic journeys.

Behind the scenes, the crew's journey
was also underway

as they followed the elephants
on a thousand-mile round trip,

through some of Africa's
most hostile places.

By following them on their road trip,

the crew would gain
an entirely new perspective

on these remarkable creatures.

Why the elephant road trip?

I think it's
because the amazing migration

that these elephants undertake
hasn't been shown before.

And also the challenges
that these elephants face along the way

bring out the best in our elephants

and, obviously,
the journey itself is stunning.

You have three, four,
five countries all together

through which the elephants can move

through this amazing area
of southern Africa.

It's a chance for people
to see a part of the world

they might not have seen before.

The entire
southern third of Africa

is covered by the giant Kalahari Desert.

The first challenge for the crew

was going to be finding elephants
in this vast wilderness.

But there is one special place
where elephants gather every year.

Seasonal rains flow into the desert,
creating the Okavango Delta

and the starting point of our journey.

Our film crew wanted to get
one step ahead of the elephants,

so they called upon local
wildlife filmmaker Mike Holding,

who has over two decades of experience
in the delta.

Mike's role would be finding
and filming elephants,

as well as sorting out the sheer logistics
of this massive expedition.

You're talking about a vast area.
Ten-thousand square kilometers.

It's really like a needle in a haystack

trying to find eles and other animals
in that mosaic of water and islands.

So, one of the reasons we spend
a lot of time in the plane,

in the air, looking at the movement
of the flood is

it's how we can see

where the different movements
and changes happen

and where the animals start to congregate.

I could do this
for the rest of my days.

Flying over the delta
is one of the most amazing things.

Anybody who's ever flown over the Okavango

will tell you
this is absolutely the way to see it

because you really get
a sense of the scale.

The massive unspoiled wilderness
and just sheer beauty,

it's absolutely spectacular.

Mike's first challenge
is to choose a location for the crew

to camp that is close
to the elephant action,

but not impossible to reach.

There are no roads around here.
There's very little mapping information.

So, the plane is incredibly useful,

really to identify a route in
for the vehicles

and which way we can go,
which rivers we have to cross,

where it's too deep,

and then we try and put that into practice
on the ground.

But, you know, it's pretty tricky

because there's a lot of water on the road
to get up here,

so when the trucks and the convoy
and everybody, you know,

set out to come and find this camp,

they're in for a few challenges
and surprises on the way.

Getting the crew
and five tons of camera gear

into the heart of the Okavango Delta

was going to need
some serious custom-built transport.

The crew call
these mean-looking machines swamp trucks.

The mission for day one,

to reach the heart of the delta
and set up camp before nightfall.

And now, the adventure begins.

This is the bottom of the delta.

Just, uh...
Just about 20 kilometers from Maun.

Yeah. Straight, straight.

It wasn't long before
the swamp trucks were put to the test.

Okay, that was basically
the first of five crossings

that we're gonna be doing.

Potentially the shallowest one.

The deepest crossing, they say,

pushes water through the gear lever notch
inside the truck.

That would mean
the water level would be about here.

We've got the six-wheeler truck

which is gonna pull us
through this crossing.

'Cause we're hitching each vehicle,

basically creating
like a long snake of vehicles.

We'll have vehicles switched off

and we're gonna block up the exhausts,
lift up everything on to the roofs.

The trucks will haul us through.

What's going on out there?

That's not a good question.

Whoo! Here we go swimming.

Everything is completely underwater.

You're just showing off.
You need to drive like that?

Wow! Hey!

- Wow.
- Wow.

That was an experience.

Shaky, shaky, but I'm okay.

As the rest of the crew rush ahead
to make camp,

cameraman Martyn Colbeck
and expert guide Presley Mbeha

are stopped in their tracks.

Out of nowhere,
a family of elephants appears.

They're highly agitated
but it's not clear why.

It's pandemonium.

We've got lots of excitement here,
lots of... Oh, that's lovely.

Wow.

And then all becomes clear.

We've just found a newborn baby

and it's staggering around,
it can hardly walk.

Probably born, I don't know,
three or four hours ago.

It's really, really young.

That's amazing. It is lovely.

The crew draw
on their decades of experience

to film without disturbing them.

The problem I've got, is A,
there's a big bull in the way.

It's okay, it's okay.

The problem I've got is that this grass
is very, very long.

So it's very, very hard to see the baby.

This male is being a real pest.

While the bull
was clearly annoying the new mother,

the fact that she was happy to stay close
to the vehicle

was a good omen for filming in the delta.

It's okay.

Everyone's very excited here.

We got the rest of the family behind us.

What's really interesting is that
she's using the car as protection.

She's trying to get away from this male.

And there's the baby.

Oh, that's very sweet, look at that.

You can tell by the pink ears,
it hasn't got particularly pink eyes.

That's very sweet.

And I can see the umbilical cord.

Oh, look at that.

A great start to the shoot.

An elephant encounter
before they'd even arrived at camp.

And a rare chance to film the first steps
of a newborn.

On the road ahead, the rest of the team
were having far less luck.

So basically, we've just got
three vehicles stuck now.

Literally, five minutes ago
we had a trailer unhitch itself

and land upside down.

Go!

It's just getting
a little bit frustrating.

We just gotta keep going,

this is what making elephant films
is all about.

Hurry! Go, go, go, go.

After 15 hours on the road,

the front of the convoy
finally drew into the site

Mike had located for their camp.

This remote island
was to be home for the next six weeks.

Mike gave me this point from his flight.

So, he gave me this as a GPS point
of where he wanted the camp to be.

The camp was all set up,

but the elephant filming had delayed
the rest of the crew.

Would they make it before nightfall?

Tell my mother I love her.

We've absolutely no idea
what's gonna happen up in front...

And we've still got 50 kilometers
to go.

And driving 50 kilometers
in the delta can take an hour or all day.

We were trying out to get out

and couldn't,
so we decided to use the winch.

Yeah, good.

And then when we were winding it back in,
the screw came out.

You see it?
Which holds the actual cable in place.

So we had to take the whole thing out

and then try and manipulate the metal.

Luckily, I've got delicate fingers
and surgery was successful.

Now we see if it pays off.

No, it's gonna take them all day.

That's it.

How's it looking?

The rear guard
finally make it into camp,

but their struggle just to get here

has brought home
the scale of the challenge.

Martyn arrives tired but elated
from filming the newborn,

but he's also concerned how quickly
they disappeared from view.

The crew realize they need a way
to keep track of the elephants.

Fortunately for them,
help is about to arrive.

Biologist Mike Chase

has been counting elephant populations
in Africa

and tracking their journeys
across the Kalahari for over a decade.

Yeah, I've got a visual,

she's in front of the woolly caper bush.
She's heading south.

Well, I'm a fifth-generation Batswana.

I've always just felt

a very deep sense of belonging
and tie to elephants.

These are the world's largest
terrestrial land mammals

and I was mesmerized by them

and I always have been intrigued
and fascinated.

And that's not just in the wild.

Mike and his partner, Kelly,
also devote huge amounts of time

to rescuing and nursing young elephants

that have been orphaned by poaching
or human conflict back to health.

Their hope is that
these junior elephant ambassadors

will help local kids
to connect to their wildlife

and care for its future.

I think people around the world
think all too often

that there are a lot of people
saving the elephants

and there aren't, really.

And so to be part of a privileged few,

committed to safeguarding
the future of elephants,

I derive a great amount of enjoyment
from that.

Let's go look for the eles.

Time to fly.

Both Mikes share a passion
for Botswana's elephants...

- All right.
- Yeah.

And today,
they hope to find a particular herd

known for traveling great distances.

The epic journey that Botswana's
elephants embark on, it's untold.

Because contrary to popular belief,

not all of Botswana's elephants
are confined to within Botswana.

They have this ability
to cross international borders.

They don't need passports.

So our satellite telemetry data
has recorded elephants

moving out of Botswana, through Namibia,
into Zambia and Angola.

Some of the largest home ranges
ever recorded.

Mike is convinced
data from his satellite-tagged elephants

could help the crew with their filming.

So one of our collared matriarch cows

has the tendency to gather in this area
during the dry season,

where she congregates in a large herd
with other matriarchs.

Yeah.

Let's see if we can pick her up.

We have the VHF tracking antenna on,

and see if we can get a ping
from her satellite collar.

Hold up. I can't hear anything yet.

It'd be great if we could get a visual.

Ah, do you hear it?

Yeah.

Yeah, a ping definitely.
There's a ping there.

If we can pick up
that concentration, it'll be amazing...

Okay. Film.

For the beginning of the
filming. We can establish family groups

that we can follow throughout the film.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

It'd be really good if we can find
somebody in this group.

It's a nice loud signal now.

Yeah.

Well done. There she is.

Okay.

Nice!

Brilliant.
Well, that's fantastic.

And now, all of these herds will probably
stick around together for a while, Mike?

Definitely, Mike.
You've got at least another month or two.

All right, great. It's not
the easiest area to get to,

but we can handle that part.

It's great. Very, very helpful.

This is the last place
left in the world

where elephants can still wander

- as they did 100, 200 years ago.
- Hmm.

For the simple reason they have the space
to do so.

Yeah.

- Wow.
- It's nearly 260,000 square kilometers.

And that's why you're having difficulty
finding elephants.

That'll be it, then!

So, we've satellite-collared
nearly 300 elephants

and you can see all these dots on the map

are GPS locations
on their migration routes.

So how often do you get updates?

- Every hour, we get a GPS location.
- All right!

So you can tell us where they are?

- Absolutely, yeah.
- So what are we waiting for?

So, let's do it!

What am I doing now?

I need a good Internet connection...

Yeah. Okay.

- ...and I'll give you the locations.
- Amazing.

Bring it on.

Our elephants have the ability
to move 1000 kilometers a month,

often over terrain
that is inaccessible for vehicles.

Good job.

It's very remote.
It's difficult to traverse.

Very thick sand, swampland, deep rivers,

thick bush. It's unforgiving.

And this is some of the perilous journeys
that elephants are undertaking.

Keeping up with them as a film crew
is gonna be a difficult task.

At first, the filming boat

did keep up with the elephants,

but it wasn't long before they'd moved
out of reach of conventional transport.

Our elephants,
whilst they're moving,

they're not moving in places
that are very vehicle-friendly.

Oh! Right over the camera.

So a lot of the time,
we have to launch the drone,

follow them by drone.

If the distance is too far,

we have to continue with a helicopter.

It's just,

trying to keep up with them is...
It's been a technical challenge.

Come in. Here we go. Come in.

This time in the air also revealed

how the channels of the delta
are formed by its wildlife.

It was important to film
the elephants' water world

from below as well as above,

which carried its own unique risks.

Big croc.

- Croc, big.
- Yeah, a big one.

Yeah. Big crocodile on the bank.

Nice four, five-meter crocodile.

Seasoned underwater cameraman,

Roger Horrocks, knows how dangerous
diving in these waters can be.

Every year,
the narrow channels are carved out

by the massive hippos and elephants,
which can be lurking round any corner.

When Roger's in the water,

he has a safety diver with him
as well as Mike supervising from the boat.

One of the things with the delta

is the massive surprise
when you go underwater,

is the relief and the structures
of the pathways

that are made by the hippos

and the plant life is...

The structure of it is just astounding.

It's gothic, it's organic
and the palettes are incredible.

The hippos and elephants
are the architects of the delta

and you can see, you know,

they use their bodies
to actually create these pathways.

You know, they're huge.

I mean, you can swim down a channel
made by a hippopotamus.

You can actually see the girth
and it's huge.

The producers want

shots that show
the water traveling down

and the only way to do that is to kind of
just travel down these channels

and you don't want to
put a boat ahead

because it muddies it up.

The danger is you never know
what's up ahead,

so for me this drift diving

is probably the most dangerous thing
you can do

just because of the...

You know, the uncertainty of
what lies around the corner.

- Wow.
- It's very beautiful.

It's a little bit scary though,
we can't really see.

It's so different.

They hear the boat coming,
they slip into the water

and there's nowhere to maneuver,

so you'll be around a corner
and you'll be on...

You'll be on top of him before you know it
and he'll bite you

and that's not good for him,
it's not good for us.

Not optimal.

Came up across a pond,
a little pool, deeper pool

and I was following Roger

and literally out of nowhere this croc
came between the two of us.

I pulled on Roger's fin...

he turned over
and started following the croc.

It was really cool, but it all happened
very, very, very quickly.

The vis is not great so just...
Yeah, it puts him on edge.

He can't really see us,

so we're not gonna do any more diving
on crocs until the water cleans up.

No, no, no. This drift diving
should be double pay.

- Danger pay.
- Danger pay. Yeah, no.

Spending day after day
filming the elephants,

the crew began to fall in love

with their many unique
and endearing eccentricities.

They have
individual personalities,

they have the same dynamics we do.
The sisters fight,

the teenagers scream and fight,

the boys show off and mock-charge.

And, you can really, really
identify with them.

I think it's their sense of fun.

I know it sounds strange for an animal
to be talked about as having fun,

but I'm genuinely convinced
that they do.

If you watch them chase warthogs.
If you watch them chase imaginary enemies.

If you watch them disappear into bushes
backwards and then ambush...

I mean, they just have
a wonderful sense of fun.

They do this floppy running,

when they just let everything loose

and their trunk goes and their ears go.

Elephants, I'm convinced,
have a wonderful sense of humor.

One of the favorite flood scenes
we captured

was a young calf chasing lechwe
and egrets through the water,

like some naughty kid chasing animals
through their garden.

It really,
really captured their personalities.

I definitely have more elephant friends
than humans.

Elephants are really gentle,

they're really caring,
they're really intelligent,

they're really entertaining.

I don't know too many people like that.

I'd rather spend a day with eles
than most of the people I know.

That's some of my friends excepted.

But some of the best moments
for the crew

were when unexpected visitors
would arrive in camp.

We woke up
to the sound of rattling palm trees

and these two guys are standing here
shaking the palms,

knocking the nuts down

and basically joining us for breakfast.

Slightly different diet, but nice.

It's a shock when you go
for your morning coffee

and you've got a couple of elephants
shaking the palm trees around your tent.

Quite noisy though, you know they're here.

They'll spend days and days in this island
because it's full of palm nuts,

so we're gonna have neighbors for a while.
It'll be great.

Mmm. Tastes like ginger.

I've eaten this before,

so if you just eat one whole nut,

it just makes your mouth very dry.

Yeah, now he's just feeding
on something else,

he's feeding on the rain tree

because there're no nuts here
altogether.

There was one bull, he ate all the nuts,

so it's very unfortunate for him,
so there's nothing.

Well, I've been a guide for 22 years,

so I actually know
the animal behavior.

And now this elephant... It's very calm

and that's why I'm this close to him.

Even the generator is on right now,

it doesn't even bother him.

So, he just comes so close,

so then we just worry that one day

he might just come
to the middle of the camp

and that's when we're going
to have a problem.

We'll just have to scatter
in all directions.

A few days later,
the crew had other visitors

that were much less welcome.

We found a pride,
in the middle of the day,

which is very unusual.

Three lionesses
and seven eight-month-old cubs

and almost immediately we found them,
they started hunting.

The camp is right here.

The zebra and the wildebeest
all formed a tight bunch,

but not far from the camp.

But this lioness was absolutely determined
and sure enough, she went again.

This time, straight towards camp.

Okay, we've got lions in camp, hunting...

Yes, Pres, go ahead.

Yeah,
we're already in the vehicle.

We had all the animals
just run through camp

and I have no idea where this lioness is.
Do you guys see the lioness?

I just saw an impala.

There she is. There she is.
There she is. Right there.

My view in the car was very limited.

I could just see out the side.
I could see out the front.

The whole back of the car
was blocked.

I couldn't see behind us.

Felt like you were in a box
and you can only see out of,

you know, a certain window

which I think made it even more terrifying

because she could be anywhere behind you
and you just wouldn't know.

She could be under the car
and you wouldn't know.

So it was just... It was insane.

Okay, yeah. Copy that.
Just let us know what's happening.

Okay...

Apparently, this lioness is still
somewhere here in the camp,

but we have no idea where she is,

so we're just gonna wait
and hopefully hear from the guys,

if they've seen her
but she's completely gone.

We have no idea.

There is one there.

Okay, copy that, copy that.
We'll just stay put at the moment.

I was really concerned. Um...

Out of nowhere, you can suddenly

have a pride of lions running
through your camp.

Dani and Alfred
were in camp walking around.

They could easily,
easily be killed by lions.

As the dry season advances,

the delta transforms into a dangerous
and hostile place.

Its channels now filled with
treacherous quicksand and sticky mud.

'Course the delta dries out
every year

and the elephants
make this journey every year,

so every year,
the waterholes become glutinous.

The elephants are very stressed
at this point.

There's virtually no food,
the water's drying up

and so they're at their most vulnerable
and stressed.

And for me,
the most emotionally challenging

was filming a baby
stuck in the mud.

Very quickly the situation
turned into a life-threatening situation.

This calf became completely locked
in this mud.

And what was amazing was
that had it been a first-time mother,

I'm pretty sure
that calf would never have got out.

But the fact that it was a very,
very experienced matriarch,

she was incredibly calm
and she knew exactly what to do

and I've never seen
anything like it before

in 20 years of filming elephants.

She realized
that she had to enable it to breathe

so she lifted its head out of the mud

and actually lifted its trunk
and curled her trunk around its trunk,

cleaned the trunk off
so she knew it could breathe

and that's extraordinary.

In the meantime, she then had to work out
how to get this calf out of the mud.

It was a very, very hard thing to shoot
because I knew how serious it was.

I was convinced that this calf
wasn't gonna get out of the mud.

I really was.

It was getting weaker and weaker
and she didn't have a solution in short

and so I thought,
we're gonna lose the calf,

you know, and here I am filming it.

What do I do?

But in those situations, I think
you have to become very detached.

You are witnessing something
that would happen

irrespective of whether we were here
or not,

so we're not really in a position
to interfere.

We should be there
as documentary filmmakers,

recording that incredible behavior
and of course she got it out.

So if we'd have interfered,
we'd have altered that outcome possibly.

When the baby came out,

I've never seen a baby covered
in so much mud.

It looked like it was dropped
in a whole vat of chocolate.

It was just
this elephant-shaped blob of mud.

And I haven't witnessed a matriarch
being so calculating in rescuing a calf.

The key role of the matriarch
was soon to be demonstrated again.

The next day,
they all disappeared

and we know from Mike
where he was filming and other people,

that they all disappeared on the same day.

They then left the area completely,

which means that all those families
were coordinated.

Someone had made the decision,

one of the matriarchs,
several of the matriarchs realized

that the water was drying up significantly

and that they had to leave the area

and that's a big decision
for a clan of elephants to make.

I think one of the biggest challenges
of this film actually

has been to get into the mind
of an elephant.

The old joke about
elephant memory is absolutely accurate.

They have the highways
mapped into their heads.

They know where they're going

and that's data that's been passed down
for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Usually with the animals
that we follow,

once you can second-guess
what they're gonna do next,

that's when things really start
to work and gel.

With elephants, that is a real challenge

because I don't think I've ever worked
with an animal that is more other.

You know, they do so many things
that we would, sort of, recognize.

They have tenderness towards their calves

to an extraordinary degree.

Their social life is super-duper rich.

They are superficially so like us

and yet they are so different
that our powers of prediction on this film

have fallen spectacularly short
on so many occasions.

Up till now,
the film crew had only managed

to follow behind the elephants.

It was time for a new forward-thinking
filming strategy.

So they decided
to take a stabilized camera,

normally used for aerial filming,
and mount it to the front of the truck.

This allowed them
to film the elephants on the move

and not fall behind on the journey.

This piece of kit
is generally designed for helicopters.

We've now mounted it on a vehicle
to get us ground-level

and give smooth tracking shots.

We're moving so it's hard to tell,

but then you look at the image
and it's smooth

because of the axis, it all rotates
around the central point,

so the results are smooth
but I'm physically bumping around.

What's fascinating is that
it's a whole new way of telling the story

and that's what it's all about.

For years, I've filmed elephants

with a long lens on a tripod
and in any sort of scenario

where elephants are moving, you might get
two opportunities at a shot,

you know, one coming towards you
and one going by.

With this machine
you've got almost infinite possibilities,

if you stay with them and so
because we're trying to tell a story

about a big epic road trip
across the desert for these eles,

this is absolutely incredible

because what it does is it allows us
to travel with the eles.

And if we can do that,
then the audience is drawn into the story

and feels that journey better than if
elephants were just passing by the camera.

Just when the crew starts
making progress with the new system,

the elephants
start covering a lot more ground,

so Mike must take to the skies
to catch up.

Once they've left the delta,
the herds travel up to 30 miles a day

as they hurry to reach the edge
of the vast, scorching desert.

The last few days,
we've actually seen hardly any eles at all

and they were last seen heading off
into an area which is of some concern.

They're heading out of the dry land
and towards an area of habitation

and of course that's not necessarily
a good thing for elephant herds.

So, I've arranged to meet up
with some elephant researchers

that I know well, who live in this area

and who monitor the movement of elephants

in the hope that they might be able
to give us some idea

whether these groups of elephants
are gonna be moving into this area.

Mike meets up with his friends,
Graham and Anna,

who are transforming our understanding
of elephant movements

by living amongst them.

Their family home
is in an area of the delta

where once elephants roamed freely

but now large numbers of people
also live and farm.

Hey, come here! Hello.

It is a challenge
raising children in the bush,

but it's also a big adventure for both

us as parents, and also for the girls.

The reason
for coming to this area particularly

was because this is an area

where there's about one elephant
to every person.

There's really high incidences
of conflict and competition

between people and elephants
for resources and space.

If you really
want to understand

what the situation is really like,
what it's like to live with elephants,

you can only truly understand that

when you live permanently

in amongst 15,000, 20,000 elephants.

You know, this is our piece of land

and when we first moved in here,
we love elephants,

but all of a sudden now,
elephants are knocking your trees over

and pulling up your water pipes
and, "Hey, hold on a minute!"

You know, it's a different story.

Living with a five-ton herbivore

that wants to eat everything around you
is one thing.

Living with 15,000 of them,
that's a massive, massive deal.

This is where the elephants
hang out quite a lot...

Yeah.

In this area and then
the main corridor comes down here,

there's another one here
and another that goes like that.

- Yeah, okay. And this is where we are now?
- Yeah.

If you take me to where you think
they'll cross,

we could put up cameras there

- and go look and see.
- Yeah.

If they're coming down
through this area,

either one of those three major pathways,

that'll be the place to look.

Today, a mosaic
of farmland and human settlements

is encroaching on the Okavango Delta.

Disrupting ancient pathways that have been
used by generations of elephants.

We mapped all of the pathways
and we monitored them.

Thirteen of those pathways were used
more frequently than any others

and so those 13
are where the corridors now are.

So the ones I was pointing out there...

Yeah.

The corridors then are made up
of a main path

plus a kilometer either side for a buffer

and then that means
that now the land authorities

will not allocate any more fields
inside a corridor.

Those corridors will be left free
so that as we move forward

and the population grows
for people and elephants,

there will always be space
for the elephants to move

but there'll also be space for people
to grow their crops

and feed their families.

Elephant corridors are lifelines.

They are vitally important
in allowing elephants

safe passage to food and water.

Without corridors

we sentence elephants to

maximum security, living in a very small,
enclosed habitat

and corridors give elephants
the freedom of Africa.

They need space,

the world's largest terrestrial mammal
needs to wander.

A visit
to their local corridor reveals

that Anna and Graham's dream
of giving herds safe passage is working.

Herds of this many,
you see them coming at nighttime

but in the daytime, it's rare to see
these many elephants coming down here.

This is incredible.

The peaceful corridor has become
a busy elephant crossroads.

Wow! Now there's hundreds.

Look at that!

This many! I'm speechless.

There's just so many of them.

It's them.

Amazing, they're actually...

Yeah.

These corridors hint at a future

where people live in peace
alongside elephants,

allowing them to move freely,
day and night.

- Here's a big herd.
- Yeah.

Mike and Graham
review hours of footage.

They're pleased to see the herds
the film team have been following

have also passed this way in the night.

- Big herds as well.
- Yeah.

Now we know
that they've come through here,

- having lost them...
- Yeah.

We can follow the highways out.

Yeah. And pick them up.

- And pick them up.
- Yeah.

We can stay with them.
That's useful.

Brilliant. Fantastic, mate.

Cool.

Mike heads out towards
Botswana's border with Zimbabwe.

A vast network of paths stretches out,
linking the last remaining waterholes.

They are key stepping stones

on the elephants' final leg
of the journey.

This is one of the big
elephant highways

and it's a very bleak desert scene.

And just watching those herds,
the matriarch, the little ones

struggling through that desert heat
and the dust

and totally uncertain of
whether the path they've taken

is the right one to the next waterhole
and the next waterhole

because, of course,
they need water every few days.

It's really high risk for these eles

and thank goodness
they have this mental map

and they have this ancient knowledge

because that's what carries them
across the desert.

In the dry season,

when we were trying to film elephants
out in the baking heat,

we were having to wait for them
by small waterholes.

We had crews
scattered throughout the landscape,

using Mike's surveying
and satellite information

to help get us to the right places.

As we filmed the elephants
on their road trip,

all sorts of things have made me realize

how sentient, intelligent,
and emotionally sensitive they are,

but there was one scene in particular
that I was filming with Martyn

where the elephants came across

the bones of a dead, we presume, relative.
We don't know.

It's one of the most
extraordinary and poignant things

to witness with elephants,

because they go into a very different
sort of frame of mind.

They're very, very quiet

and they're very sensitively touching
key parts of the skeleton.

It's usually the skull, the tusks,
the lower jaw, the pelvis.

They don't respond in the same way
to the bones of other animals

so they clearly know that the carcass
is that of an elephant.

And it's absolutely remarkable to witness.

Elephants coming across the bones
of another elephant

and the gentle way
that they touch the bones, sniff them,

almost as if they were trying
to work out who this was,

how they died and it's a mourning

and it's just their respect for each other
and care is really, really beautiful.

I think that is really special.

The elephants just would,
picking up the bones,

passing them between each other,

drooling on them so they could get
more taste and smell.

They spent 10 or 15 minutes,

apparently reminiscing
about an individual,

who knows, we'll never know,
but it was very moving.

This set of bones
exemplified the fact

that the decisions
that the matriarchs make

and the matriarchy makes across the clan

are actually crucial to the survival
of the family

and they have to get it right.

The elephants complete
their five-hundred-mile journey

as they reach the shores
of one of Africa's largest rivers.

The Zambezi is an elephant paradise.

Its secluded islands have plenty of food
and fresh water

to sustain them
for the next couple of months.

And the team are in perfect position
to film the first arrivals,

as well as reveal one of the most dramatic
and extraordinary landmarks

on the elephants' road trip.

Victoria Falls is the world's
largest curtain of falling water.

Over two-million gallons per second
cascade into the gorge,

creating Mosi-oa-Tunya,
the smoke that thunders.

To capture the enormous scale,
the falls must be filmed from the air.

But even with the very latest,

most advanced drone,
this was a nerve-racking job for the crew.

The shot that we're trying to do,
which is slightly insane,

is to drop the drone down in this V,
by Cataract Island,

and swing around to
where this lovely light is shafting

and then come round
so that the shot opens up

and you can see the whole fall.

The trouble is,
we're getting lots of spray on the lens.

I mean, you can see out there,
it's just absolutely insane,

there's just spray everywhere,

thousands of tons of water per second
going over the lip

and we're flying a drone right through it.

It's like they're stupid things.

I'm very confident
that Russell is a superb drone pilot

but he's gonna need to be.

That's nice.

I think
we're just picking up light from here.

I can only imagine,
looking there,

how many updrafts and downdrafts
there are gonna be.

Any one of them could suck our drone
right down into the gorge and trash it.

Keep coming. Keep coming.

It's nice.

Okay.

Uh...

No, let's bring it back.

Yes, that's our scene.

Okay.

The trouble is we're flying a brand new,
really expensive drone

all over Vic Falls
and it's soaking with water

and we think this is
why it might not be behaving correctly.

As we come over the waterfall,

all of the spray is coming up
and drenching the rotors,

drenching the electronics
and then we're losing control.

It's always nerve-racking,
this, flying it into waterfalls like this.

The challenge is, I mean, we've got
a lot of spray from the waterfalls,

so we're getting the camera and drone wet

and there's a lot of wind at the moment
and downdraft and updraft.

I mean, the wind's just crazy around here.

You just never know what's gonna happen.

Definitely the hairiest bit of filming
and I think everyone agrees.

Let's just do that same run again.

That's good. That's good.

That's it. That's nice.

That is lovely, straight over the falls.

Great, cool, Russ.

- Bring it back.
- Bring it home.

Bring her home. Bring her home.

Whoo-hoo!

Well done, guys.

The stuff we got at the end
was just incredible so...

Yeah, and I'm relieved it's down
on the ground, so... Damn happy!

Poor Russell,
that's a very nerve-racking day.

We basically said,

"Go on with $80,000 worth of equipment
over Victoria Falls,

"and don't crash it."

Luckily, he didn't crash it

and that last shot
looks absolutely amazing,

this gorgeous orange light
and this amazing vertiginous drop,

which was, yeah, something else.

I've never seen Victoria Falls
look like that, incredible.

Two months later
and the waters have receded.

It was time for the elephants
to head back to the Okavango Delta

and for our crew to once more
follow in their footsteps.

The team was back on the road again.

Heading away from the Zambezi,
the next stop for the crew was Hwange,

Zimbabwe's largest National Park.

Here, the herds were avoiding
the heat of the day by traveling at night.

The crew knew they were heading straight
into lion country.

Just in the last year,
cameras have come out now

by which we are able to see in pretty much
near darkness and film in color.

We've got a very specific filming period
with these low-light cameras at night,

so we're really hoping

this behavior would happen while
we've got enough moonlight.

Um, a lot of us guides
never really get the opportunity

to see what predator interaction
goes on during the night,

so it's kind of a unique insight
into something

that we really rarely get the opportunity
to experience, so

excited and apprehensive
'cause not knowing what to expect.

The night cameras reveal
how little the elephants can see at night.

I've had experiences before
where young lions

have taken an interest in a vehicle,

but not to the degree
that these youngsters did.

Hey!

The important thing is to make sure
that you're always calm

and the guys switch their flashlights on
and the lion backed away instantly.

Negative reinforcement.

And they're the ones...

As soon as
they actually figured out

that we were not something to play with,

they accepted us
almost as if we were part of the pride.

Well, when she got up
and came towards the camera,

she came closer than minimum focus,

I was trying to focus on her
as she came towards us.

Minimum focus, I think, is 80 centimeters.

That's close in a car
with no doors on at night.

Very cool cats though.

Until one bites you.

Night after night, Gavin and
Clinton keep a watchful eye on the lions,

which didn't seem the least bit interested
in the elephants.

Everybody keeps telling me
these lions are the ones which,

you know, are super-active,
as you can see.

- Once with an...
- One rolled over, twice.

So it got all pretty quiet around
at the moment.

For now, the elephants
are safe from the lions

but as these old bones show,
that isn't always the case.

One of the big differences between filming

during the night rather than the day is

a lot of the predators are less nervous
of our presence,

so your vigilant level
has to be quite high

and also, you know, you're dealing
with night-in night-out

and you know your body
starts to take strain

'cause you're working all night and
trying to catch up in the day,

so it gets quite tough.

So, when you're working at night,

it's very important to stay vigilant

and it's really good
that the three of us are out here,

keeping our eyes open and ears open

for any strange sounds
or predators or whatever.

In fact there's some...

Is that a lion at the back?

It sounds like a lion roaring.

I think it might be.

I was hoping the guide might be
keeping his eyes open for us,

but it appears
the night has taken its toll.

Yeah, after talking
about how vigilant we should be,

and I fell asleep on the bench seat
in the back

and then basically roared like a lion
in my sleep.

Even though
the crew was out looking for lions,

when you camp in the middle of Africa,

you're always sharing your space
with the local wildlife.

Whether you know it or not.

Have you ever had the feeling
you're being watched?

For the last few nights,
the lions had disappeared from the area.

They returned on the full moon.

And with empty bellies.

Right, that female's up.

She's on it, she's on it.

The other one's up.

This is it.

She's got it,
she's jumped on the back.

We've gotta move.

All this was captured
by the behind-the-scenes cameraman,

bravely shooting the action
from the open back of the filming truck.

Okay.

To film all of the
action, to film Gavin and his reaction

and for me to film Clinton
and all of the things going on

in the back of an open car,

there's lions surrounding the car

and there's a mother elephant
who's really agitated

trying to protect her calf,
running towards the car.

She's coming your way,
coming your way.

That was pretty intense, really.

I think for me, as soon as I saw that lion
go for the elephant,

in my heart, I was thinking
"Don't kill it, don't kill it."

And I suppose I was quite relieved
that Mom actually managed to chase it off

and that's pretty good mothering really,
to be able to chase off eight lions,

eight hungry lions,
you know, as a single elephant.

The next morning, the crew returned
to the scene of the attack.

As expected,
the lions were still in residence,

but surprisingly,
our elephants were also close by.

I remember hearing all the
sounds before coming round the corner.

It was mayhem.

The elephants were so distressed.

We couldn't work out what was going on.

And then we saw they were all looking
at the same place.

Looking down at the ground
where the matriarch was lying.

She was still alive but only just.

It was as though the family realized

they were about to lose their leader

and all the information
and knowledge she was holding.

Without a doubt, the grandmothers,
the matriarchs of the family group

are absolutely critical to the survival
of the rest of the elephant family.

They are the oldest, wisest leaders
within the group.

Occasionally,
they'll make mistakes

and there are fatalities along the way

but for the most part,
these animals are incredible.

They know where to go
and they know when to go.

I think what intrigues me most
is, is their relationships

and of course
the longer time you spend with them,

the more you know
what those relationships are like

and you can sort of start to untangle
what goes on between relatives.

The bonds between the individuals

and the emotions that you get
with these individual relationships.

Our film
is really all about journeys.

You've got the journey of the water
from Angola into the Okavango Delta.

You've got the journey
that our herd goes on, the road trip.

But actually, my favorite journey
is the one taken by a female

who starts the film
as the second-oldest female of the herd.

But when the matriarch dies,

the herd turned to her
to help get them back home

and she has to find it within her
and pull on all of that knowledge,

pull on everything
that she learned from the matriarch

to save the herd
and bring them back to the delta.

The loss of one of the film's
key characters

was followed by another piece of bad luck
for Mark and the crew.

Now the rainy season
isn't due for two months.

So, you know,
I was feeling a little bit concerned,

and, you know, in the end,

when we managed to find a spectacular
evening sunset scene

with the eles trekking
against stormy skies

so... I guess that was a silver lining.

The crew were in place
as the storm ramped up

and the lions sensed opportunity.

One of my favorite nights
of the shoot so far,

Halloween night, no less,
it just felt so atmospheric.

We were with the elephants
and out of nowhere,

the storm whips up, the sky goes...
Still going, sky goes dark,

just apocalyptic scene
with kind of dust devils and sand

and we actually saw the lions
before the elephants did.

They came in on our side like this
just through the swirls of dust

and lined up in front of the elephants
and then the elephants saw them.

We weren't sure if the lions
were gonna attack the elephants

or the elephants, the lions.

Elephants start advancing on them

and then the lions sort of back off.

I looked over and that they...
I could almost touch them

and then luckily they were just
completely fixated on the elephants.

Very raw, very real.

And, yeah,
quite a Halloween night actually.

As the rains began in Zimbabwe,

they were already well underway
in the Angola Highlands,

the source of the Okavango River.

Months later, the floodwaters
are creeping back into Botswana

and filling up the delta.

The leading edge of the flood
is moving at over a mile per day,

so the crew has had to race
to get ahead of it.

We found this spot.

We actually saw it from the plane.

You know, if we can get
our big crane down there

and we see the water coming down

and it trickles and flows and builds.
I think it'll be really amazing.

Okay, here we go.

The challenge we've got
is the sun is dropping fast

and we were gonna plan to try
and shoot this tomorrow morning

but the speed in which the water
has come in now,

we're just worried if we wait,
that overnight it's gonna be through here,

so we're frantically trying
to make this come together

with literally minutes of sunlight left.

Right where you're set. Yeah.

- Right.
- Right. Right, ready.

This water, we're not sure
if it's gonna come slowly

or in inches an hour, so

I think we only have one go
before the light goes.

Tom, get me ahead, please.

Keep going, keep going, keep going.

That's very fast, okay.

There is good.

Keep going.

This is the flood
of the Okavango Delta.

It's unbelievable,

here it comes from Angola

and we're standing on the leading edge
of the flood.

Now we've just filmed it.

This wall of water just comes
pouring in over the desert

and we managed to catch it.

But it's stressful
and you hope everything is working

but it looked fantastic.

And after three years of trying,

we've finally managed to film
the flood arrival, it's quite incredible.

And now here come our extras.

Where we are right now

is outside the buffalo fence
in the Okavango Delta,

so this is a cattle area.

And this is the water
that all of these cattle drink every year

and all the farming communities rely on

and no sooner has it come through,

then we've got cattle
coming to drink.

It's an absolutely amazing sight

and it's just been such a struggle,
but really rewarding to finally get it.

The flood in the Okavango Delta

has to be one of the most amazing
and frustrating things on our planet

because everywhere around here,

you'll find an expert who's gonna tell you

when the flood's gonna arrive
and where it's gonna go.

And I can tell you to a man or woman,
they are always wrong.

Every time the flood arrives,
there's a real sense of anticipation

and it is...

It's like an old friend returning.

It goes from a semi-desert to an Eden
in a matter of a few weeks

and suddenly everything is lush,
the place is full of new life.

Flood arrives.

Mark and Jonathan take to the air

to film the magical sight
of life returning to the delta.

What you get up here
is amazing different colors

of green and emeralds
and then sand and then yellows

and it's amazing and it just depends,

like, you travel a kilometer

and then within a kilometer
it feels so different.

So, of course, one of the
brilliant things about filming aerials

is this extra level of context
that you get.

So on the ground, you just get
a tiny window of what's going on.

But as soon as you're up really high,

you can see, for example, the floods
snaking across the landscape

and all of the animals
gravitating towards it

and you actually get to understand
the process of what's going on.

Back down on the ground,
the other film crew

hangs back to capture the final leg
of the elephants' epic journey home.

One of the things
that's been working really well

is our ground-based
camera stabilization system,

which has been allowing us to film
elephants on the move.

And today, for example, we were trekking
alongside our herd

and one of the calves was falling behind

and it was dribbling
and in a terrible state.

And its mother kept circling back
to chivvy it on

and, you know, nurture it
through the situation.

You feel like you're on the journey
with them and it's effective.

It's tough for them,
you know, they lose condition.

They're thirsty, they're hot,
they're hungry,

there's little to eat,
it's a really tough time for them.

Over the course of the filming,

the crew came to realize
that these elephants

can only complete these epic journeys
through the Kalahari

because of the strength
of their family bonds.

It's only when these extraordinary bonds
are broken,

when herds are attacked by farmers
or poachers,

that calves get lost or abandoned,

something Mike Chase
is determined to prevent.

Every elephant counts
and if I'm in a situation

to help an elephant that's
orphaned because of humans,

then it is our commitment and duty
to respond, absolutely.

The lucky ones get taken

to Mike and Kelly's
Botswana Elephant Orphanage.

Over the past five years,

they've learnt
how to become surrogate parents

to some of the world's biggest toddlers.

All the orphans
and all the little elephants,

they're very emotional animals
in the first place

and when they're separated
from their family,

they have these strong needs

and are very dependent
and very vulnerable.

If you leave them, even for a few minutes,
they stress and the stress is what...

It can actually kill the baby elephant.

So, when they come in,

we're with them 24 hours,
seven days a week,

every minute.

Somebody is with them, sleeps with them,
holds them,

a lot of physical contact is important

'cause elephants
have a lot of physical contact.

They really need to feel a bond,
and feel that love, and feel that care.

Having them together is perfect

because the orphans
actually comfort themselves.

So they're not alone, they have a family,

they bond very well, they play,
they learn from each other.

We just help it, we just help them
in the process.

Use your trunk, please,
use your trunk. There we go.

Look at...

Elephants are being orphaned or abandoned
because of poaching,

human-elephant conflict,
retaliatory killings

and these little calves,
they don't have a future

if they were left in the wild,
they would die.

Unfortunately, not many local people
in Botswana

get to enjoy the magnificence
of elephants.

And to be able to touch and feel
and empathize

with their struggle for survival,

I think is fundamentally key to securing
a future not only for elephants,

but for our natural world.

Using calves, at the sanctuary,

as an ambassador species
to invoke a culture of conservation ethos

in our youth is what we're hoping
to instill with the elephant sanctuary.

Mike and Kelly's work
continues to this day,

taking in lost calves

and providing a brighter future
for Botswana's elephants.

Back in the Okavango Delta,
the crew is set to capture

the elephants' return
to their watery home.

A year on the move has brought them back

to the very place
their filming first began.

They're coming.

But there is one key character
they're all rooting for.

Oh, my God. Pandemonium.

Splashing, they're just splashing
and crashing through that water.

The new matriarch
has got the herd home safely,

even the new calf.

The crew are elated.

Having an absolute
whale of a time.

That is amazing. Oh, my God.

Oh, wow!

Oh, that is amazing.

And it's the story
of the journey of elephants

but it's been a journey for me as well,

which has been incredible

and there have been
some fantastic elephant moments.

We've seen them struggling for water,
we've seen babies being born,

we've seen old eles die

and I think I've learned far more
than I anticipated

that I would about elephants
and their behavior and their movements,

just from the process of making this film
and that's been really magical.

Children love elephants,
people love elephants

and I think if we can get
people realizing,

having an epiphany,
like I did 30 years ago,

that these animals
are extraordinary and special

and we should care about them
for our children and grandchildren,

I think we will have succeeded.

That's what I hope we can achieve.

In recent times all we've heard
about elephants has been gloomy,

it's been centered on poaching
and the ivory trade

and we wanted to shine a light
on the elephants themselves.

Emotionally and socially
intelligent creatures

that really deserve our respect.

But also,
that this incredible home of theirs,

where they're still free to live out
their lives as they always have

is here to be saved, if we have the will.

In his ongoing work
to save elephants,

Mike Holding teams up with Mike Chase

to fly a new aerial survey
of Botswana, and beyond,

for the next elephant census.

Counting the elephants
allows them to monitor

the long-term trends
in Africa's elephant population.

Their work is continuing to help protect
and conserve these amazing animals

in this most vulnerable period
of their history.

There's certainly
a lot of eles out here.

I have to say I'm a bit nervous
of telling Mark about all these elephants

because it's almost
completely inaccessible, this area.

He's gonna have a heart attack if he tries
to get camera crews out here,

but isn't that nice actually,

you know, just for us to enjoy it
at least.

I know.
You know... As you say, Mike,

they're in the elephant heartland,
beyond the reach of man and cameras.

Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of nice, you know,

- not great for the film...
- No.

But it's nice for the eles.
Stunning.

How many elephants
do you think are here?

- Oh, Mike.
- I mean, there is a lot of eles here.

This is some of the highest concentrations
of elephants in the world.

So elephants can aggregate here
in their thousands.

Yeah. This is a little piece
of paradise here.

Where elephants can be left
at peace to be elephants.

- Exactly.
- And that's...

For me, that's very comforting
and reassuring.

Yeah.

Given the plight of elephants,
that there is still a safe refuge

where elephants can disappear
into the wilderness of northern Botswana

and still follow
the ancient migration routes.

Yeah.

Look at this, it's just beautiful.

Amazing country, yeah.

Having flown the great elephant
census and knowing what I do

and seeing the situation of elephants
in many protected areas,

elephants will go locally extinct,

but the upside of that is
that I'm incredibly fortunate

to be studying and conserving elephants
in their last stronghold.

This is where elephants
are making their last stand

and...

I think I'm very grateful
for the opportunity

to be a part of a film like this,

that sends a message
to the rest of the world

that elephants are important

and the story that you're telling

is crucial to protecting and conserving
the world's largest elephant population.