Original subtitles

[Forrest] Deep in the wilds of Africa,

an enormous elephant is laying waste to a tribal village.

[people screaming]

I came here to solve the mystery

of why it's lashing out and capture it.

But there are some forces in nature

that are not meant to be contained.

[man screaming]

I am Forrest Galante,

as a wildlife biologist,

tracking and rediscovering animals on the verge of extinction...

Oh, my God!

[Forrest] I've noticed a pattern of mysterious sightings

and human wildlife conflicts...

Look, there's an elephant, there's an elephant right there.

[Forrest] Which often turned deadly.

Now my team and I are scouring the globe

to shed light on the myths and misconceptions

surrounding our planet's most mysterious creatures.

My mission takes me all over the globe,

but I make it a priority to always stay in contact with home.

And my original home is here in Africa.

I was raised in Zimbabwe, just a few miles to the west,

taking tourists into the bush from when I was a child.

So when I heard of an enormous bull elephant

damaging a Shona village in nearby Mozambique, it felt personal.

The Shona were my neighbors in Zimbabwe.

My first taste of community as a boy.

And now they feel they're under attack.

I had to come.

[Forrest speaking]

This is very odd. Look at this hut, all destroyed.

This is someone's home.

Look at this house, absolutely flattened.

[Forrest] There's something terrible going on here.

Shona people are some of the friendliest people

in the entire world, and they don't even want to say one word to us.

It's part of their culture to not speak after a tragedy.

It's been a long travel day, so

we'll just bed down here for the night

and just start speaking to them in the morning.

[Forrest] Human wildlife conflicts have been on the rise

here in southern Africa for decades.

In Mozambique, the human population has grown

to over 30 million with nearly half having no plumbing

and relying on river access, the same rivers African wildlife rely on.

Deaths from these conflicts, both human and wildlife,

have risen over 300% in only a few years.

And if we don't act, it's going to get much worse.

[people screaming]

[Forrest speaking]

Look, there's an elephant. There's an elephant right there.

Big Bull elephant.

Look at that.

[Mitch speaking]

[people screaming]

[Forrest] Where'd he go?

[Mitch] Just ran this way.

[Forrest] All right, let's go see if anybody got hurt.

[Forrest] Thankfully, there don't seem to be any injuries.

[people chattering]

[man speaking]

[Forrest] I know. We can't kill the elephant.

[woman speaking]

[Forrest] Okay, okay, okay. What happened? What happened?

[man speaking]

[Forrest speaking]

[man speaking]

[Forrest] Yeah.

[man speaking]

[Forrest] Okay. All right, I'm very sorry.

I'm very, very sorry. We're going to try and solve this problem.

It's... it's not a bad elephant.

It's a bad situation, you know, and that's the problem here.

[Forrest] Until I get a look at the animal,

I can't even begin to figure out why it's harming this village.

It could be hurt or poisoned by poachers.

So we'll check for visible wounds.

It could be acting erratically out of desperation,

competing for resources like food and water with this farming village.

What we do know is that although it's rare,

an elephant can be incredibly destructive.

A full-size male like this one could reach 13 feet

at the shoulder and weigh up to 20,000 pounds.

An adult bull can use their trunks to hurl large objects at you,

crush you under foot

or gore you with their massive tusks.

So I think what we need to do, guys, we saw where it ran off through the bush.

I think we just need to try and track it down and have a look at the animal

and see if we can figure out what comes next.

Let's grab our gear.

Let's head straight into the bush. Let's go.

Unfortunately, right outside of the village

is all this long grass, and there's absolutely no prints.

But we know the elephant took off in this direction.

There's water here, there's good bush, there's open flood plain.

It's a perfect environment for both animals and people.

And so they're trying to share space and you get conflict.

Now throughout human history,

whenever there's been a human wildlife conflict,

the resolution, kill the animal.

But the problem is, there's so many people, there's 8 billion people.

There's only a couple of 100,000 elephants left.

So we have to find this elephant and figure out

what can we do to help it, to save it,

to stop this conflict because these worlds are not gonna stop colliding.

[Forrest] Despite its awesome size and strength,

the African elephant is a gentle herbivore.

They use their massive trunks to pluck leaves from branches.

They form families.

And with brains much larger than ours,

they're recognized as one of the most intelligent animals on earth.

[Forrest] Eyes out, guys. I'm not seeing any tracks here.

So it opens up over here.

Stop right there.

Look at this, see this, perfect elephant track.

You can see here, the bottom of an elephant's pad

is just like the human finger, every single ridge is unique.

And you can see that these are very, very fresh.

What I can do is take a photograph.

[Forrest] This will allow me to compare prints from the village

to confirm this is the same elephant.

The other thing that's so fascinating about pachyderms,

about elephants, we've recently discovered

that the sensitivity that they have in the pads of their feet,

they can pick up vibrations through the ground.

They're likely to actually feel us

coming through the ground before they hear us.

And it just makes us that much less likely to catch up

to an elephant that doesn't want to be caught.

So just gonna have to keep going quietly.

All right.

Oh, look here. Look, look. Shh, shh, shh.

This is fresh, guys.

Look, we're on the right trail.

You see how fresh this is?

Feel that temperature.

Feel it.

It's warm.

All right.

So we're very close now.

So here's what we're gonna do, Mitch.

I want you to grab a big chunk of this.

You're not gonna like this.

John, you too, I'm afraid.

And here's what we're gonna do, guys.

Watch me.

You're gonna mask your scent.

Okay?

They have great sense of smell.

And the truth is they know exactly what we're doing.

So yeah, put it all over.

Now if we're up or downwind,

at least we smell like a bit of elephant [bleep] instead of people.

We're very close now, guys. This has been worth this hike.

Quietly, single file. Okay? Let's go.

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

Back up, back up, back up, back up.

That is a massive bull elephant.

[Forrest] He's calm.

Not under any obvious distress.

That likely rules out any poisons from poachers.

[Forrest] Guys, back up, back up, back up.

[Forrest] But from this distance, I can't tell if he's injured.

And he clearly knows we're watching.

[Forrest] He's really just not letting us get close at all.

And there...

there he goes.

[Forrest speaking]

Which is a problem if we want to actually learn anything about him.

So let's do this.

Do you have the thermal drone with you?

-[Mitch speaking] -[Forrest] Let's get it up.

[rhythmic beeping]

Ready?

-[Mitch speaking] -[Forrest] Yep.

Okay, so go to thermal.

[Forrest] He's smart.

He knows exactly how to camouflage himself amongst the trees.

The thermal drone makes it much easier to spot him...

by picking out his unique heat signature.

[Forrest] That's it. Go that way, Mitch.

[Forrest] I'm fairly confident this is the same elephant

from the village attack.

But so far, he's only shown us his backside

and what's dropped out of it.

I got a good look at the tusks on the elephant

during this morning's attack.

So if I can confirm a match, we'll be certain.

There, right there.

[Forrest] That's him.

[Mitch] Yep, that's him.

Running into the woods.

[Forrest] Yep. How far away is he?

[Mitch] About a mile.

[Forrest] African elephants have been recorded

running as fast as 25 miles per hour, like a living freight train.

[Forrest] Look at the size of that bull.

[Mitch speaking]

Huge, look at those tusks.

[Forrest] Guys, this is a massive bull elephant.

[Forrest] He's unmistakable and rare.

You're not going to see another bull this size outside of a national park.

He doesn't appear wounded at all.

I believe this is an animal that has been forced

into human territory purely out of hunger and thirst.

Any destruction he's caused

was probably out of fear as he's been shot at and scared off.

You know, we have to save this animal.

[Forrest] Over the last decade,

nearly half the population of Mozambique's elephants have been slaughtered by poachers.

And with fewer than 10,000 remaining, every life counts.

[Forrest] Can you make a GPS mark where he is?

[Mitch] Yeah, I can follow up to him.

[Forrest] Oh, hold on. What's that over there?

[Mitch] Holy [bleep]! Look at the... look at all the elephants.

[Forrest] Oh, my God! That is a problem.

[Forrest] This changes everything.

The male is part of a big herd.

And while I'm happy to have an answer,

the solution is going to be much more challenging.

[Mitch] It's a crazy situation.

We can't stop a herd of elephants going into a village.

[Forrest] This herd of elephants is at least a dozen strong.

There's a mother, there's... there's calves. There's everything.

[Mitch] What are our options? We're a team of five people.

This just got a whole lot harder.

So I just got back to Maputo and have cell signal for the first time in a while.

And I'm gonna give Jess a call and see if she can help me.

[rhythmic beeping]

Hi, sweetie!

Hi, Hoover.

Hey, buddy!

How you doing?

[Jessica] I'm doing well. How about you?

Well, I was doing good because I thought that there was just this one elephant

that was terrorizing this village,

but then I found out it's a whole herd of elephants.

Oh, wow, that... [laughs] That really complicates things.

There are babies. There's a huge bull.

I have to figure out a way that I can actually

catch them and move all of them.

That's gonna be really tough because you don't want to over-sedate a baby.

That could potentially be lethal.

[Forrest] What I was hoping you could do

is research the absolute best wildlife vet in Mozambique

and see if you can set up a meeting.

Okay. Yeah, I can get on that right away.

Thank you so much, sweetheart.

[Jessica] Love you. Be safe.

[Forrest] I love you too.

[Forrest] There's no fence strong enough to contain a herd of elephants,

so the traditional solution would be to relocate them.

If successful, this would be the first time in history

that an entire herd of elephants has been moved within Mozambique.

To accomplish this in record time,

I need to assemble the best team in all of Africa.

And that starts with a doctor who can safely tranquilize 13 elephants.

-[Forrest] Joao? Hey, good to meet you. -Good to meet you.

[Forrest] Jess immediately connected us with Joao Almeida.

He's deeply experienced in wildlife capture and relocation.

If you're relocating a wild animal in Mozambique,

he's the man.

With the elephants, the critical component is

getting in the right spot, where...

where you can dart them in the open,

where the trucks can access and load them.

-Okay. -[Joao] This area is very remote.

-[Forrest] Yeah. -I'm not sure if trucks will be able to...

to make it there.

It's gonna be very challenging,

nearly impossible logistically.

Do you think that you could help me getting the capture team together?

[Joao] We'll make some contacts. We'll give it a go.

All right. Well, we have our work cut out for us.

-Cheers, let's get it. -[Joao] It's gonna be a good adventure.

[Forrest] We're gonna need high-density steel crates

to contain the elephants during the ride.

All right, so what's going on here is we're just assembling the elephant crates now.

Not going so well.

[Forrest] And we'll need cranes to lift them after they've been tranquilized.

I mean, look at the thickness of these steel walls.

See these? These are from elephant tusks ramming through.

[Forrest] Catching up to them to fire the tranq gun

is gonna take an incredibly nimble helicopter pilot.

And around here, that's Harry.

Hello?

[Forrest] We can't expect pave streets where we're going.

And a stuck truck could put lives in danger.

So I've also recruited Thomo.

He carves roads right through the bush.

How do you think the roads are gonna be?

[Thomo speaking]

[Forrest] Yeah.

We've got three crates built. We've got two more to go.

I mean, it's just a massive, massive operation.

So, it's one thing to find and capture a herd of elephant.

It's another thing altogether to figure out where to put them.

[Forrest] I'm flying 400 miles north to Zinave National Park.

They've got over a million acres of protected habitat.

[Forrest speaking]

[Forrest] And it just happens to be managed

by the father of one of my childhood friends.

This protected area is home to thousands of wild animals.

[Forrest] The forest is thick, thick, thick here, eh?

[Trevor] Yes. And we need the elephant to come through,

clean out the undergrowth,

and then you start seeing the whole ecosystem start to develop.

Elephants knock trees over in a good way,

and they're actually gonna balance out this entire park.

[Trevor] That's right.

[Forrest] Zinave Park would benefit greatly from our herd.

And they've got plenty of space.

But I also want to know they'll be safe.

And luckily, Trevor takes security very seriously.

[Trevor] This is part of our anti-poaching unit,

the Ranger Force, and elephants are in their hands.

And they train every day, eh?

Every day.

Between the habitat and the environment and the community,

I think this is a perfect place for our elephants, so.

Yeah.

We look forward to receiving them.

[Forrest] Yeah, we'll sort it out.

[Forrest] The sun is setting on our last day of prep

before we attempt to relocate over a dozen elephants.

Now that the entire team is in place,

we're meeting to lock down our impossible rescue plan.

[Forrest] So, Joao, how much time do we have from when we put the darts in?

Usually, we don't want to keep them under for more than one hour.

So we really have to push them to the road.

-Exactly. -[Joao] Yeah.

And all of this is sand, thick forest.

All of it is in terrible territory.

So really the point is to have these trucks on standby here,

our unit ready to go to jump in.

Once this bull goes down, we're gonna put him on the flatbed truck.

Then we're going to move him to where your containers are.

[Forrest] And we need them safe inside the container before they wake up.

[Ivan] One of the big issues with the bulls is

-the high center of gravity... -[Forrest] Right.

Because if they lean against the side of the truck,

on that side, they'll roll the whole truck.

Till this elephant is off the truck, the danger is not over.

-[Forrest] Yeah. -It's just a different set of dangers

every step of the way.

[Forrest] All right, guys. Well, I'm nervous.

[man] So are we.

[Forrest] This is by far the most complex,

multifaceted life or death mission I have ever attempted.

And failure is not an option.

[helicopter whirring]

[Forrest] I may have been feeling the pressure last night,

but I do love the smell of Mozambique in the morning.

Smells like home and hopefully a victory.

[vocalizing]

[Forrest] We've got two choppers in the air.

I'm riding with the push team,

and we'll be trying to herd the elephants towards the road.

In the other chopper, Joao is leading the vet team,

and he'll be firing the tranq gun.

After the elephant is darted,

the ground team will rush in to confirm the elephant's health

and clear its trunk to keep it breathing,

while the containment units are signaled to close in for pickup.

Ten trucks, two cranes, two helicopters,

and over forty trained professionals.

This is it.

[Forrest] Okay, Pete, let's drop down.

This is where I found the ele's on foot.

[Forrest] Look at this, this is wild Africa.

Big beautiful herd of giraffes running through here.

A hippo right there, guys, look at them.

So, we're on about our fourth hour of flying, nothing.

I mean, look at the size of the environment

that we have to cover to try and find the whole herd.

[Forrest] The elephant is the largest terrestrial animal in the world.

But between their exceptional hearing,

sensitivity to vibrations,

and natural ability to camouflage, they are masters of stealth.

[Forrest] They're such intelligent animals.

They know that we're looking for them.

Nothing. They've just vanished.

They're just absolute ghosts.

[Forrest] All right, Pete, let's just stay along the flood plain.

[man speaking]

[Forrest] It's hard to find elephants from the ground,

it's hard to find them from the air.

People think they're big, they're easy to track. They're not.

[Forrest] There's a herd, guys. There's a herd right there.

[Forrest speaking]

[man speaking]

[Forrest] There's at least a dozen of them,

babies, subadults, matriarchs,

and most importantly, our big bull.

[Forrest] Get ready with the other chopper, bring it in.

Right there, right there. They're heading towards the forest, guys.

That foliage is so thick.

If they get in that, we've lost them.

We're done.

[Forrest] My pilot is attempting to herd them away from the forest

so the other chopper can get close enough to start tranquilizing them.

[Forrest] Such smart animals.

They know exactly what's going on.

They do not want to go into the open.

The thing is we can't catch one of them or two of them,

even though mom may run out in the open,

if we take her and leave the babies, babies are gonna die.

It's an all or nothing situation.

Ah, there's the matriarch. Look at her.

[Forrest] The matriarch is the true leader of a herd of elephants.

The oldest female calls the shots.

[Forrest] They're all following the matriarch.

Cut off the matriarch, Pete.

[Forrest] If the other chopper can tranquilize her first,

the rest of the herd might stop to protect her.

[Forrest speaking]

Let's try to push them out. We're gonna drop down right over the foliage.

Cannot let them go any deeper.

Keep pushing Pete, keep pushing.

Okay, they are back to the forest.

Joao, come in. Joao, come in. We're ready.

[Joao speaking]

[Forrest] They're in the open.

Okay. You've got to a nice shot.

[Joao speaking]

[Forrest speaking]

[Forrest] All right, we got one dart in, one dart.

Dart is in the matriarch. I can see it.

[Forrest] Now, the ground crew is already on their way

to make sure the matriarch is safely tranquilized.

[Forrest] Okay, get ready.

We've got to make sure the big ones go down first

so they don't land on the babies.

Here we go.

We are holding them out of the trees.

[Forrest] The rest of the herd has broken into smaller groups.

We've got to get them all before they disperse.

It's stressful, but it's our only shot at saving their lives.

[Forrest] We've got a subadult.

Here they go. They're going towards the trees, towards the trees.

Good hit.

I can see the dart.

Yep, it's staying in.

[Forrest] Joao's chopper is quickly tagging the rest of the herd.

We now have all ground vehicles closing in.

So I need to get on the ground and make sure the tranquilizer is working

and the trunk is clear, help check vitals

and make sure they're all safe.

[Forrest] Look at this, we've got a little family group here,

big female, subadult, and a baby.

The subadults come up against the tree here.

What we're gonna do is cut the tree down quickly

so he can lay down flat.

[Forrest] In this position, his lungs are being compressed...

[man] Pull, one, two, three.

[Forrest] And he could suffocate, so every second counts.

We just got to keep this guy breathing.

Watch out, she's not super sleepy, eh?

[Forrest] We have a dozen elephants in all.

So now that his trunk is clear, he's safe to breathe

under the anesthetic and you could see he's breathing

just fine right now, so that's really wonderful.

Hey. I've got a new hairdo.

[Forrest] These are such enormous animals to observe up close.

It's awe-inspiring, but also a harsh reminder of our mission.

[Forrest] You see this, Mitch?

This looks like a gun wound from somebody small scale rifle

taking a shot at him.

You know, probably someone from the village,

someone who's had a conflict with him.

So we're here just in time to save this guy.

[Forrest] You see, this big mama here.

She's breathing nicely. She's down. But look at this.

She's literally got a hole in her trunk here.

And this is a snare wound, you know,

from someone who set out a snare, probably to deal with these animals.

And this is just a sign, you know that we're doing the right thing.

This is proof of the human wildlife conflict around here.

[Forrest] We're just about ready to move them onto their trucks.

But one of the babies is still alert.

Unfortunately, it seems like the dart's got in at a bit of a bad angle.

And the calf's just not going down as quickly as mom.

So we're trying to figure out exactly what to do.

But it might not look intimidating,

but that calf is still bigger than your average bull.

The big concern is that if the calf stands on mom's trunk,

he's gonna cut off her airways.

And if he cuts off her airways, she can asphyxiate to death.

So we just have to wait till there's enough medicine

in his system that we can attempt to push him down.

So he's getting woozy now, starting to tumble.

[Forrest] We can't risk dosing him again,

but I need him on the ground where he can't trample his mom.

[Forrest] Yup, yup, yup.

Got him. Hey, watch out. I'm gonna jump on him. Watch out.

There we go. There we go.

All right, little guy. Watch the trunk. Yeah.

Okay, he's all right.

He's all right, he's down.

He's breathing.

Anesthetics kicked in all the way.

It's a wild, crazy rodeo when you have to tackle a baby elephant

to move it out of a human wildlife conflict zone.

But doing fine now, breathing nicely.

But that was hectic.

[Forrest] Now all hands are on deck

to safely load the herd onto the trucks.

[Forrest] Up we go, guys.

Mama's being lifted up now.

She's about to go into the crate.

Now it's all coming together.

The crane, the pulling, the big box.

It's not every day you get to see this,

an elephant upside down on a crane going into a box.

Can I give you the trunk? I'm gonna go up.

There we go.

[Forrest] A dozen African elephants,

all safely inside their containment boxes.

[Forrest] They woke up and they're perking up.

Things are looking good, but we haven't found the bull.

And the truth is the bull is the problem animal.

Unless we can get that animal out of there,

the community is still at risk.

That big elephant is still at risk

and we're running out of daylight.

Chopper's getting antsy. Let's go see if we can find him.

Let's go, Mitch.

[Forrest] It's actually not unusual for the bull to be separate from the herd.

He spends most of his time on his own,

sourcing food and water for his family

and only joins them to breed or say hello.

So I'm betting he's not far. And he knows what's going on.

Harry, Joao, you guys seeing anything?

[Joao speaking]

[Forrest] Copy that.

Wait a minute.

Drop down, drop down.

Look, he's right here, he's right underneath us.

See the trees moving, look at the trees moving right there.

There he is. See him?

All right, Joao, we got a big bull under the trees.

We're getting him towards the clearing.

Joao, get ready. He's going to pop out.

[Forrest] Yeah, there's a clearing coming up, 12 milliliters.

You're gonna have one shot.

Here he comes. Here he comes.

Good hit, Joao! Yes!

[Forrest] The dart's in, so we're setting our timers.

We've got five to eight minutes before the tranquilizer

takes full effect, so we have to stay on him

and keep him out of cover.

[Forrest] Here he goes. He's taking a run. He's taking a run.

[Forrest] He's headed right for the thickest canopy.

But he is starting to slow down.

[Forrest] He is going down, let's go put the bird down.

[Forrest] Here we go. Let's go.

[Forrest] Let's go quick. Go, go, go, go, go.

[Forrest] Mitch, watch out.

[Mitch] Heads up.

[Forrest] Okay, we've got a big problem now.

He's gone deep into the bush. Come.

Okay, he's down, he's down, he's down.

Good work, guys.

[Forrest speaking]

Whoo!

All right, we're good, we're in good shape.

-[man] All right, guys. -[Forrest] See that, he's breathing

[chainsaw whirring]

So these guys are just trying to clear the road now.

[Forrest] Now, the ground crew has to quickly cut a road wide enough

for the crane and the flatbed.

I'm gonna stick here with the big guy and monitor his vitals.

[Forrest] Six breaths per minute.

Here we go. So we're just getting some basic measurements now.

[woman] Yeah.

-305. -[Forrest] 305, huh? He's a big boy.

[Forrest] That's over 10 feet tall at the shoulder.

[Forrest] Okay. So we're just gonna cover his eyes

with his big, beautiful ears.

That way, he can be a bit calmer, it's easier for him to go to sleep.

[Forrest] So when we're tracking, if you remember,

we took a great photo.

[Forrest] Every single elephant pad is unique.

[Forrest] See this little island-looking ridge,

about the shape of the state of California. Look right here.

There it is, right there.

-So this is the one. -Yeah.

This is the animal that ran through the village and caused all the commotion.

Now we're gonna save his life.

Guys, I want you to touch him, have a feel

'cause this is a magical moment. I want you to feel him.

So, it's the largest land mammal in the entire world.

One of the most beautiful and intelligent creatures

in existence to ever roam the planet.

[Forrest] Everything is a race against time.

In about 15 minutes, we literally cut a road

in a place where there was no road in the middle of the bush.

[Forrest] Now we just have to crane him in.

Up we go.

[Forrest] There we go.

Excellent work, guys.

Beautiful, nice and centered.

Watch your head on this as he goes.

Just want to keep him settled.

[elephant snoring]

So hear how he's snoring, that's just perfect.

The muscles in his trunk are relaxed.

Now, we just got to try to get him out of here in time.

[Forrest] We just blew a tire.

[Forrest] This is terrible luck.

We need to get him into his wakeup box soon.

I don't want to risk having to drug him anymore,

but we don't have time for a tire change

and we're running out of daylight.

[Forrest] So you can see, we managed to get her out.

We used the six-wheeler to pull out the flatbed and here comes our elephant.

Absolutely incredible. Let's jump on.

[Forrest] We need to haul him out to the road

and get him in his wakeup box ASAP.

[Forrest] As soon as we get there, we're gonna give him the antidote,

try and move him onto the truck, drive through the night

to Zinave and let him go.

So things are going well, but it's... it's touch and go.

[Forrest] The bull is too heavy to crane into the wakeup box,

so we fashioned a makeshift conveyor belt to try and slide him in.

[Forrest] Now we're just lubricating up the floor

so that the mat slides right off.

[Forrest] And in he goes, like a six-ton slip and slide.

[Forrest] This is wake up drug now, right?

-[man] Yeah, yeah. -[Forrest] Yeah.

[Forrest] We can't leave him under anesthetic for the long ride.

It would kill him.

And he's going to be agitated when he wakes up.

The last place we want to be when that happens

is locked up in a steel box with him.

Oh, yeah. He's... he's ready to go, guys.

All right, out we go. Come on quickly before he wakes up.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Watch it, watch it, watch it.

[Forrest] Might as well go have a walk around in the night.

In this part of the world,

there are just so many things that could cause that much destruction and devastation.

I mean, it could be elephant, it could be buffalo, hippo, rhino.

Here's the end of the village here.

All right.

Hear that?

[distant roaring]

Right there. That's a lion.

It's a big male lion.

So I am gonna head back towards the village.

[Forrest] He is up. He is up.

Watch out, Mitch.

You can see if you look through my screen here, he's up.

Beautiful. Look at the eyes.

You can see the intelligence.

[Forrest] I'm hoping that somehow, even during all this confusion,

he has a sense that we are not going to harm him.

We need him to stay calm.

[Forrest] We've got a bit of a difficulty now,

which is that he is choosing not to back into the transport box.

I can see through my screen here, that's the box behind him

that we have to get him into and he's backed up into that corner.

He's got his bum against the back wall, which is a pretty bad situation

because you certainly can't get in there with him now.

So we're just going to move that one foot.

We just have to coax him gently

into going into that transport box.

Ah, there we go, there we go. Movement.

[Forrest] He's responding warily but without a fight.

I think he's realizing we are not a threat.

Good work, guys. Good work, guys. That's it.

[Forrest] There he goes. There he goes. He's stepping in.

[man] There he goes. Go, go, go, go.

[Forrest] Almost.

Excellent.

All right, close, close, close, close, close, close.

All right, got it. He is in.

[laughs] We did it.

Good work, eh?

Yeah. And now comes the journey.

-[Mitch] Yeah. -[Forrest] Let's buckle up for a long drive, Mitch.

[Forrest] We're traveling over 400 miles with security escorts

because we have to take it really slowly.

If an elephant falls, it could not only hurt itself,

it could literally knock the truck over.

Plus, we are lugging extra tires in case of a blowout.

[Forrest] So we're going to have to drive all through the night,

likely all through tomorrow, but it really doesn't matter

how long it takes or how far it is because,

you know, we've come to save this animal and, and help save the species.

[Forrest] The long, slow haul is taking us over highways

and through townships.

And after nearly 20 hours, we're arriving at Zinave,

just as the sun is getting low on the horizon.

With 13 elephants to release,

we're letting the big guy out first to survey his new home.

[Forrest] This is it.

[Forrest] Look how alert he is.

His tail is up.

He's looking around at his new home.

A healthy bull like him will also enhance the gene pool here in Zinave.

Next, one of the subadults, also very curious.

You can almost see it thinking through its new surroundings

as it turns to look at us.

[Forrest] Just a few more left.

All right, here we go.

[Forrest] We've got to keep going until the entire herd, 13 elephants,

are safely released into their new protected home.

And now the final two elephants.

Look at that.

How magnificent to have them slowly come out,

check out this new, incredible habitat,

and then just take off into the wild where they're safe, protected.

Ah, it's just amazing.

[Forrest] An entire herd transported in under 48 hours,

a complete success.

[Forrest] All right, boys! Whoo, whoo, whoo!

-[all cheering] -[bleep]

[man] Yeah! Well done.

-[Forrest] Great job, guys. -Yeah!

Well done, everybody!

[man] Whoo!

[Forrest] I returned home to Africa

in the hopes of solving a deadly problem in a Shona village.

What we discovered was something I am all too familiar with,

a human wildlife conflict zone.

I came prepared to relocate an animal,

but I could have never imagined moving an entire herd of elephants.

And it wouldn't have happened without the help

of all the brave, brilliant specialists that joined this mission.

Moving an entire herd within Mozambique

has never been done before, and between the herd, the Shona village,

and the preserve, look at how much it accomplished.

[Forrest] We're helping the community.

We're saving the elephants and we're fixing the ecosystem.

I mean, this is literally the trifecta of good conservation.

[Forrest] And I hope our efforts show

that there's a way we can all live together,

even with the world's largest terrestrial animal.

It just takes effort and a lot of care.