All language subtitles for The Great African Migration 2of4 720p HDTV

'The Serengeti, East Africa,

stage to one of the world's most
extraordinary natural spectacles.

Each year, 1.3 million wildebeest

make an incredible 650km journey

from the vast Serengeti plains
in Tanzania

to the highlands
of Kenya's Maasai Mara

and back again.

I'm spending a year following them
on their epic journey...

..from the birthing plains

to the treacherous
river crossings...'

A crocodile! It's got it,
it's got it, it's got it.

Wow.

'..and the perilous fight
for survival.'

(LION ROARS)

'I'll get up close
with the animals...'

Really?
Yeah. Really?

The male is right next to me.

(SIGHS)

My heart's still pounding.

'..and meet the people...'

This is nuts.

'..who are an integral part
of this...

..one of the largest
mammal migrations on earth.'

'On the first stage of the migration,
in February,

250,000 wildebeest calves were born

and I began working
with Dr Grant Hopcraft,

one of the world's leading
researchers of wildebeest.

He GPS collared four mothers,

so that we could follow them
in their hoof prints.

But a month in,

and drought left the earth parched.

Life struggled for survival.'

(FLIES BUZZ)

'The migration,
already having trekked 200km,

was off-course...

..as hungry and desperate
wildebeest scattered...

..in search of fresh grass.'

(BIRDS OF PREY SCREECH)

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

(RUMBLING CONTINUES)

(WILDEBEEST LOW)

'At long last,
rain has finally arrived...

..providing much-needed nourishment
for the flagging migration.

Young and old can now feast again...

..with grass in plentiful supply.'

(WILDEBEEST LOW)

'It's now June.

The fertile lands
have reenergised everyone...

..and the herds are on the move.

I want to know where
these lush plains are taking them.'

I can't believe
how the landscape's changed

in a relatively short amount of time,

it's unrecognisable.

The grass has shot up to
sort of waist height.

This was a dustbowl
last time I was here.

I mean, it looked like
it couldn't sustain any life.

You know,
what's so exciting this time is

it really does feel like
a different place,

so it kind of feels like
a whole new adventure.

'Grant has been monitoring
the migration's movements.'

Ben!
How are you?

Very well, thank you. How are you?
Very well, thanks.

A cup of coffee for you.

So, according to previous data,

the wildebeest should,
and correct me if I'm wrong,

be roughly around here somewhere.
That's right, yeah.

That's exactly where they should be.
So where are they?

Well, it's not a normal year,
unfortunately, Ben,

and so, what's actually happened is
that we've had a division in erm...

in the migration, actually,
which is really interesting.

As in, it's broken up?
It's broken up, yeah.

And it's going
two very different directions,

one heading northwards

and the other one's heading
sort of southwest.

So no-one's...no-one's west,
where they should be.

But first of all, why have they
actually split into two, then?

Well, good question.

Erm...that, we don't really know,

but all the evidence is suggesting

that this is probably
to do with the weather,

it's just become less predictable.
Mm-hm. You know?

We can see that in
the rainfall patterns over time.

It's becoming less predictable,

and what's happened is
they don't know which way to go.

'We named our four
collared wildebeest

after famous conservationists.

Rachel and Dian have ventured
into the woodlands

with the northern herd...

..whilst Jane and Virginia
have made the decision

to stick with the southern group
in the treeless savannah.

Since their calves were born
four months ago,

each herd has travelled around 200km,
searching for food.'

(WILDEBEEST LOW)

'The closest group to us
is the southern herd,

so we head off to search for Jane.'

So we've got a location
from her this morning... Yep.

..which we downloaded.
Yeah.

We've plugged that into the GPS

and we're asking the GPS
to take us there. Mm-hm.

And we're still a few kilometres
from her, 6km,

but it's out that way,

so we're definitely heading
in the right direction

from her last observation.

'But before we can reach her,

another collared animal
steps in our path.'

Yeah. She's got a collar,
so someone else is tracking her.

Look how fat she is.

She's probably got 20 or 30 kilos
of meat inside her.

Possibly wildebeest.

I hope to God that's not Jane.

(BOTH LAUGH UNEASILY)

Wouldn't that be ironic, though,

one collared animal
eating another collared animal?

Even in this grass
that's been pretty heavily grazed,

she's pretty hidden, isn't she?
Oh, yeah, completely.

In fact, once she goes down,
you won't see anything.

And we've got vultures
circling around.

They might have been feasting off
whatever the lion left behind.

That's right.
In fact, I'm pretty much sure

that she's eaten probably
just in the last few hours,

there's going to be a kill
around here somewhere,

why don't we go and see if
we can see what she's been eating?

(VULTURES SQUAWK)

And that is obviously
not a wildebeest.

That's not Jane.
Not Jane, phew! That's a zebra.

Yeah, it's a zebra.

Look at... Those...

They're really digging in there,
aren't they?

(ANIMALS SQUAWK AND CRY)

'Out here, hyenas and vultures have
a mutually-beneficial relationship.

Circling flocks of vultures
lead hyenas to a carcass,

while hyenas drive away
other potential predators.'

Just look at that one, it's covered
in blood. It's unbelievable.

They're not particularly delicate,
are they? No, they're not at all.

They're very greedy eaters,
they get right in.

But you can see, like,

that one is going almost
right inside the ribcage.

It's coming in from the anus

and going...climbing inside
the body cavity of the zebra.

'Vultures eat
almost entirely rotting flesh.

Their stomach acid is more corrosive
than that of other animals,

allowing them to happily feed
on even diseased carcasses.'

If we go and get samples
from this animal,

we'll be able to get
a little bit more information

as to what's actually going on.

How is it that that lioness,
presumably, if it was that lioness,

caught this animal?

(ANIMALS CHATTER AND GROWL)

Is this fighting between the hyenas?

Yeah.

I'm assuming you're not
going to take a sample now,

given all the hyenas
and vultures around.

We should probably leave them to it.

Well, you know what?

These hyenas look full to me.

I reckon we hop out of the vehicle,
we start clapping our hands

and we try and see
if we can shoo them off,

and then we get a sample.

I love this royal we.

(BOTH LAUGH)

You'll get out.
No, you.

You. (LAUGHS)
I'll come with you.

You really think that they'll
just be scared off, will they?

Go on, you go first.
(LAUGHS)

(CLAPPING AND SHOOING)
(VULTURES SQUAWK)

Keep an eye out for lions.
Yeah.

And the hyenas.
(SHOOS)

Look at that, they've taken
the whole rear end. Yeah.

Ooh! A few flies around here.

(FLIES BUZZ)
Oh, the smell!

So, lion kill, to me.
Mm-hm.

Hyenas, when they kill,

they'll grab the testicles
or the udder... Mm-hm.

..and they'll start
disembowelling the animal

as it's coming down,

so you end up with a big blood spot
all around. Right.

Here we've got just
a little blood spot. Yeah.

Lions are much more efficient
when they kill.

(BIRDS CAW AND SCREECH)

'To study the Serengeti's ecology,

Grant has to take samples
whenever possible.'

Pretty gruesome, this, out here.

You know, new kill,
hyenas all around us...

Do you enjoy this
or is this just a part of...?

You know, what I do enjoy is,
I enjoy the forensic side of it.

Whodunit?
Mm-hm.

It's a bit of a...sort of a...

You become a detective out here.
Exactly.

It's a murder mystery, isn't it?

Somebody's killed this animal.
Who did it and why did they do it?

First thing is, we can tell
right away that it's a male. Yep.

So it's got that canine there?
Yes.

Looks like a fairly youngish male.

What we'd like to have a look at
is the femur. Mm-hm.

OK, tell me what you'd like me to do.

So I want you to smash it.
Yup.

And what we're going to
try and do is,

we're going to get
a bit of bone marrow

right out of the middle there.

OK, this one here?
Yeah, that's it.

Oh, nice!

Wow, that's interesting.
Is that the...?

OK, we're going to need
a bit more back this way.

Can you smash that again?
Yeah, sure.

Yeah, let's see
if we can get in there.

I'm helping the hyenas here,
aren't I? You are.

And in fact, the vultures
are going to love you for this.

Yeah, look at that.

The bone marrow is
the last resource of fat. Mm-hm.

What we should be seeing here

is something that looks a bit like,
sort of, pale butter. Mm-hm.

What we're seeing instead
is red erm...

bloody bone marrow.

To me, that's infection.
Right.

This animal isn't healthy.

It's trying to build
red blood cells.

Erm...and what it's done is
that it's sacrificed its fat

to make red blood cells.

So this animal probably was killed
when it wasn't healthy. Right.

So the story is becoming
more complete now.

What we're seeing is that

that lion didn't take
a healthy animal,

it took a sick animal.

'As we continue our pursuit
for the wildebeest,

the Serengeti's
unpredictable weather

reveals itself.

With daylight fading,

our search for Jane is put on hold...

..but not before we catch our
first glimpse of the southern herd.'

I love this.

We're sheltering from the rain
in the car,

but they're loving it.

It's just so entertaining
to watch them.

I mean, you know,

I love watching the way
they sort of jump and frolic around.

Look at the kicking
and things like that, you know?

'At this time of year,

the wildebeest have only one thing
on their minds...

the annual mating season,

also known as the rut, is upon them.

Fresh pastures
and rising testosterone levels

are making the bulls
a little frisky.'

And is this a sort of,
'I'm loving this rain,'

or is this the start of
this so-called rut?

OK, well, there's a couple
of things going on here.

Definitely, they're starting to
prime themselves up for the rut.

The rut hasn't started yet,

but they're getting
primed-up for it.

On top of that,
they're getting rained on,

and rain always induces
playful behaviour

in almost all animals.

But presumably, the rain,

that is lasting far longer
than it should... Yeah.

..perhaps because they
arrived late... Yeah.

..but this is unseasonal again,
isn't it?

It is a little bit unseasonal.

I mean,
we're getting rain now in June.

And June is typically drying month,

this is the beginning of
the dry season,

and that's usually
when the rut would be happening,

so we're just seeing
the very start of it.

'Daybreak in the Serengeti...'

(WILDEBEEST LOW)

'..and the southern wildebeest herd

is finally starting
to get back on course,

winding its way
to the west of the park.

But this is their
biggest danger zone...

..it's prime poaching territory.

Each year, a vast 80,000
to 120,000 wildebeest

are caught in snares
or shot with arrows

as they're illegally hunted
for bushmeat.

Many more are injured in the process.

Here in the west,

where villages back
straight onto the Serengeti,

a booming population
means a huge 95% of homes

consider bushmeat
their main source of protein.

I've come to meet a man
who runs a project called COCOBA,

which aims to reduce
these illegal killings.'

Hey, Benny.

How are you? Good.
Very nice to meet you.

How are you?
Nice to meet you, too. Likewise.

You are welcome to our COCOBA group.
Thank you very much.

Hello. (SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

So these are the community members

which, actually, in the past,
some of them used to be poachers.

Really?
Yes.

Why we focus in
this particular area,

in this western part
of the Serengeti,

because wildebeest have been
seriously attacked by poaching.

Can...? Only people who mind,

could they put up their hands
if they used to be poachers?

Could you ask them?
Oh, yeah.

(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

Wow, quite a lot.
Yes, there is some poachers.

But no longer.
They're reformed poachers. Yeah.

So tell me about how
the community group works, then.

OK, so instead of being involved
in the poaching,

they can access loans

and then they can come up with
some income-generating activities.

Like...?

Well, some,
they will tell what the business.

They are telling?
Yeah.

Wow!
Yeah. Very good.

'The group stores the loans
in a safe before they're approved,

and today, everyone needs to
pay in their share.'

Each member has his number
or her number.

One baobab tree,

it means 2,500.

What's fascinating is that everyone
in here trusts one another, then.

So there's complete trust
within the room... Yeah.

..but maybe, beyond these walls,
not so much. Yeah, not so much.

But will you thank everyone?
Yeah. It's amazing to see this.

(MEMBERS CLAP AND SING)

That was amazing.

I just wasn't expecting that.

Walking into a classroom,
very simple,

and just to be confronted

by a sea of such proud faces.

You know, it was moving,
it was incredibly inspiring.

It's giving them the opportunity
to do it for themselves.

And the fact they've
turned their life around,

going from an illegal trade
to entrepreneurs,

they...it was amazing.

'I return to the southern
wildebeest herd.

It's been two days
since I last saw Grant,

and the mating season
has well and truly kicked in.

All around,
bulls are turning their attention

to attracting the opposite sex.

We've stationed ourselves
in the thick of the action.'

What happens in the rutting season?

How long does it go on for?

OK, so, well the rutting season

usually lasts for
about two or three weeks.

And what's going to happen is,
you'll see,

like that bull's doing right now,

his head's right up
and he's looking around

and he's trying to find females

and he's going to bring them
into his little harem there.

And what's going to happen

is that every single bull is
going to break up this entire herd

into just a series
of harems of females.

(WILDEBEEST LOW)

So, you know, over there,

we can already see
that male has rounded up

half a dozen or so females,

is he going to mate with all of them?

He's going to try.
(LAUGHS)

But what's going to happen there

is that while he's off
getting some more females,

somebody's going to come
and steal his ones.

'Bulls reach their prime
between five and ten,

which is when they're strong enough
to fight off the competition

and defend their territories.

Whether they're a novice
or a veteran,

this is when they come to blows.'

So, the males,
are they just doing this solidly?

They're going to do this solidly.
They're not spending time eating.

And in fact, what we actually see is

the males' physical condition
actually goes down.

Cos they're just thinking about sex?

They're obsessed by sex.

(BOTH LAUGH)

(WILDEBEEST LOW)

I feel like we're two dirty old men.

(LAUGHS)

We're like voyeurs,

we've come out
to watch wildebeest.

(WILDEBEEST SNORT AND LOW)

Why are the wildebeest
only doing it for three weeks?

Why is this their...
their kind of sexy time?

Yeah.

Wildebeest are really tied
to their environment, unlike us.

We're a little bit removed
from our environment,

we can breed at any time,

wildebeest have to be in synchrony
with their environment,

and that's because it's expensive,
raising a calf.

And the only time
you can raise a calf

are when the resources
are most abundant.

So you have to be able to
synchronise your calving event

with the rainfall patterns
happening in the system.

Are the females
releasing their eggs now?

Is this...?
That's right.

The more females
that are becoming fertile,

the more bulls are getting cued,

and the more bulls
that are getting cued,

the greater the competition becomes.

And eventually,
what's going to happen

is that everybody gets so exhausted.

The bulls almost drop in the dust
because they're so tired,

at which point,
another bull comes straight in,

that female's exhausted,
she has no more choice anymore,

everybody's mated all at once.

'For some unlucky bulls,

disabling injuries on the battlefield
can ultimately spell their end.

As the males continue to focus
their energies on sex and violence,

it's up to the females
to carry on nursing

their four-month-old calves.

They might be nurturing their young,

but in between,
they'll also be bred again,

ready to give birth
in eight months' time.

We focus our attention
on tracking down Jane.'

Yeah, she's definitely this way.

I'm getting quite excited.
Yeah.

I'm looking forward
to seeing Jane again.

'Last time I saw five-year-old Jane,

she'd given birth

and had a GPS collar
fitted around her neck.'

So given how much grass there is now,

are you expecting she's going to be
in pretty good shape?

Mum has been lactating
since we saw her,

and lactation is really
a difficult time for wildebeest

because they've just got to
pour out that energy,

as much energy as you can produce
to give to your calf.

And so Mum should be
in fairly decent condition.

(WILDEBEEST LOW)

OK, you have a little look.

Pretty much 12:00
on the nose of the car... Right.

..there's a little group there.

Let's she if she's... Oh, yeah.

No, I think that's her.
Is it?

I think that's her.

I can't see, though...
I'm looking for her calf.

Would the calf
definitely be with her?

Could it have tagged
onto someone else? No.

No, they don't adopt
each other's calves.

I mean, there are no calves
that are unattended anywhere near.

This looks like she's lost her calf.

I mean, you can see,

all the other calves
are with their mothers.

Is that particularly unusual
or is that all part of the...?

Losing a calf?
Yeah.

It's all part of the game.
Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, you know,
of the calves that are born,

about 30-40% of them die,
you know, by this point, you know.

It's a shame about her calf.

It is a shame about the calf.

Maybe it just couldn't keep up.

'Wildebeest produce
their first calves at three

and they'll have around five
in their lifetime.

Next year's young
will be Jane's third,

and she's already being courted
by an excited bull.'

Is this a male over here?

He seems to be, sort of,
showing off a little bit.

He's kind of...
He's kind of prancing. Yeah.

And in fact, he's actually starting
to act territorial.

You can see he's chasing off
all these other males as well.

He's getting that rutting...

Yeah, a bit more
than that grunt, actually.

(LAUGHS) That's right.

I don't know how to tell you this,

but erm...yeah,
he's got a big erection.

(LAUGHS)
I think. Really?

I think I've er...seen that before.

Yeah, he does have an erection, yep,

so Jane's obviously attractive.

(WILDEBEEST LOW)

I don't know if he's doing
particularly well, though.

It looks to me
like they've all lost interest,

most of them are heading off
to the left.

Yeah, they're leaving him.
Oh.

Nobody's interested in him, yeah.

(WILDEBEEST SNORTS)

He's looking pretty despondent.

Poor guy, it's like the guy
that's been rejected in the pub.

Yeah.
He's gone back to his mates...

Yeah, and he's like,
'Oh, no, now, what do I do?'

Start again.
'I'll eat some grass.'

(BOTH LAUGH)

Get a bag of crisps,
that's what I do.

Used to do, obviously.
(BOTH LAUGH)

'As the herd continues
their migration towards the west,

Jane is swept away
in a sea of wildebeest.'

Obviously, we're going to
keep tracking her. We can.

We'll keep seeing her online,

but the next time
we should get a visual on her,

hopefully, if all goes to plan,
north, the Mara? Maasai Mara, yep.

She's got to cross -
The river.

She's got to cross
all those crocodiles,

she's got a long trip ahead of her,

but that will be, probably,
the next time we see her.

It's a long, long journey for her.

(BIRDSONG)

'It's the middle of June,

and the southern wildebeest herd

is in the midst
of the western corridor.

Here, the biggest threat they face
are humans.

This is the 350,000-acre
Singita Grumeti Reserve,

which borders the Serengeti.

Created in 1994 to protect the path
of the wildebeest migration,

its wildlife was decimated
by prolific hunting.'

(ANIMALS CALL)

'In 2002,

a private management company
took over

and declared war on poaching.

They've trained the toughest men

and now run one of the most elite
anti-poaching teams in the country.

These two men head up their troop.'

So how many security and
anti-poaching guys do you have here?

For anti-poaching,
I have 102 game scouts,

who do all
the anti-poaching activities.

And I'm assuming that they
have to be in peak physical form,

these guys are looking
pretty impressive.

Absolutely. I mean, I have 143 guys.

These are the quick reaction team
that support the game scouts

should there be an incident.

So we train
6:30 every morning with PT

and we do weapons training
continually,

so we're always doing something
erm...physical, if you like.

Have they come into contact
or into conflict with poachers?

Yes, they do.

Sometimes there is one incident
in which we lost a game scout

with a poisoned arrow,

so it's happened so many times.

Have you ever hired any ex-poachers?

Yes. Yes, in fact,
most of them are ex-poachers.

So they know all the environment,
where to find them,

so you can use those skills
which they had

during the time
when they were poachers

to fight against
the poachers themselves.

So how can you ensure
that information doesn't leak out?

Yes, I just keep reminding them
that they should not do so.

And if they do it

and if we prove
that they have done it,

we fire them.

(ELEPHANT BELLOWS)

'Most of the world's illegal ivory
comes from Tanzania.

To protect the reserve's recovering
elephant population,

12 observation posts
are strategically placed

to oversee the entire park.

These are manned 24 hours a day
to catch hunters.'

And how many poachers
do you think you stop

or do you catch on a weekly basis,
for example?

We usually arrest around...

more than 300 of them in a year.

That is an average
of one poacher a day.

Is it this small-scale,
sort of, bushmeat scenario

or is there a higher level?

I've worked over most countries
in East Africa.

It's getting worse,

it's getting more technical,
more advanced,

the backers to get this
are training their guys properly,

so we've got to
counter that threat

by training our guys properly.

And that's really
what I'm doing here with these,

taking their training
to a next level.

You know,
people hunt because they are poor

and they find this
as a way of making their lives.

So it will take us
a long time to make sure

that the poaching
is completely eradicated.

As long as there's poverty...
Yeah.

..there will always be poaching.

There will always be poaching.

'80% of Singita Grumeti's rangers
are ex-poachers,

and unlike the bushmeat hunters
that target the wildebeest migration,

many here used to work for
organised crime syndicates

that export ivory around the world.

Charles was one of them.'

And did you get lots of money
from the elephants and the lions?

But we hear that ivory sells for
a huge amount of money,

so who got the most money,
where did that all go?

How do you kill an elephant?

Does the elephant cry out?

You never felt sad?

And now that you work here
as an anti-poacher,

do you have regrets,
do you feel...shame, almost,

of the animals that you killed?

It's...

You know, it's so out of my...

realm of comprehension.

You know,
I see these beautiful animals,

I travel the world
to photograph them,

to take visual memories of them...

so the image of an animal
lying on the ground,

crying out in pain,
having been shot,

having been caught in a trap,

I can't really go there.

It's too... I kind of...

I get too emotional if I start
thinking about the actuality.

(ELEPHANTS BELLOW)

There's two sides of poaching,
and I've met one side,

and those are the foot soldiers.

Those are the people on the ground,
near to the animals,

who do it because they have to do it.

They're, like, the very bottom rung
of the poaching ladder.

The villains are much higher up,

far from, probably,
anywhere around here,

probably never even seen
an elephant in their lives.

'It's time to bid farewell
to the southern herd,

who I've spent
all my time with so far,

and head north

in search of the group
that's journeying

towards the Kenyan border.'

'As this leg of the migration
is coming to an end,

I go in search of the northern herd
that includes Rachel and Dian,

as they migrate upwards,
towards the Mara River.'

'Within the next two weeks,

the rut will be finished,

and some 300,000 pregnant wildebeest
will be continuing their journey.

Migrating alongside the wildebeest,
for protection in numbers,

are other herbivores
such as zebra and antelope.

And here in the north,

where open woodlands and hills
make up the terrain,

an unexpected individual
is driving the herd.

Having found the northern half,

I meet up with Grant.'

OK.

A beautiful light now.
Yes, isn't it?

Just at sunset.

'It's at this time of day

that wildebeest communication
reaches its peak

as thousands begin to call out
to each other in synchrony,

a display that's known as
the big hum.'

(WILDEBEEST LOW IN UNISON)

What do you think they're saying
when they're making this noise?

I'd love to know
what it would translate as.

I mean, just the gnus,

it's like they're having
dozens of conversations.

(LAUGHS)
'Yes, no, gnu.'

'Gnu, gnu.'
Yes.

But when they're actually
doing this in unison...

Yeah, so when they're
doing it in unison,

when the whole hum is going on,

this is hundreds of males
all saying,

'Mine, mine, mine, mine,'

and they're going to be
arguing about it.

That's what the rut's all about.

It's these males going,
'Mine, mine, mine, mine,'

and women, the females going,
'No, no, no, no, no.'

(WILDEBEEST LOW IN UNISON)

The hum is all about the rut.

Dick Estes is one of
the leading wildebeest experts,

and he's a great friend of mine,

and one of Dick's experiments
was to try and see

if he could induce ovulation

just by playing the hum of the males
to the females.

And what he found is
that there's probably some cues

that these females
are increasing their ovulation,

and cueing themselves
to a feedback mechanism

between the males and the females.

So the females are sending off
pheromones to the males,

the males start humming,

and that brings even more females
into oestrus,

so it's sort of
a positive feedback cycle.

'As night falls,

we're able to continue filming

with the use of
a special infrared camera

and night-vision binoculars.'

(WILDEBEEST LOW IN UNISON)

What's fascinating
about this for me is that,

you know, I've been lucky enough
to come out to East Africa

a number of times over the years,
I've been on safari quite a lot,

but you rarely come out at night
like this.

Now, it feels like
the whole Serengeti

is alive with wildebeest
and that's it.

(LAUGHS)
I can't hear any other animals.

No, that's right.

I mean, you can hear,
sort of, faint ones,

but really, I mean, suddenly,
our acoustics now tell us,

you know, how many animals
there really are here,

it replaces our visuals.

And in some sense,

it is a true indicator
of what's actually going on here.

I mean, the wildebeest
really do rule the Serengeti,

everything is determined
by the wildebeest.

(WILDEBEEST LOW IN UNISON)

Wildebeest are rarely seen
mating during the day,

this is obviously
when all the action happens.

We should see a lot more mating,

but we just don't see it
during the day.

It happens, sort of,
under the cover of darkness.

When they do mate,
it's over in seconds,

and it's sort of a wham,
bam, thank you, ma'am,

and off they go.

It's even worse
than the worst one-night stand

you could ever imagine.

(LAUGHS)

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

These clouds over here
are just incredible,

it's like being in a theatre.

You know, that's directly due north.
Mm-hm.

And that's where
the rains are happening.

Down in the south,
the rains have stopped,

so everybody's trying to head north,
towards those clouds.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)
(WILDEBEEST LOW)

'The wildebeest herds
and our collared females

have travelled 100km
on this part of their migration,

but they continue to remain divided.

Both are now heading
straight for Kenya

and the perilous Mara River crossing,

the biggest obstacle
on their journey.

As droves of wildebeest
and other herbivore

follow the rains to the north,

they leave these plains
for the last time this year,

blissfully unaware that it's home

to the park's most
highly-endangered species.

I hear news that I've been granted
unprecedented access

to visit a secret location

where just a small number
of these threatened animals roam.'

If you imagine rhinos are probably

one of the most coveted animals
in the world, in terms of poachers.

And anyone that has them
goes to great lengths

to either protect them
with heavy guards

or to keep them in complete secret,

keep them in isolation,
away from everyone else.

So the herd that live here
in the Serengeti

are kept miles from anywhere

and they're kept in
a top-secret location.

And to allow someone like me
to come along and film them

is pretty much impossible.

But we've managed to, kind of,
get through umpteen loops,

the paperwork, officials,

and we've finally
been granted permission,

which is pretty amazing.

'I'm directed to a checkpoint,

where I meet the team of rangers

who are solely responsible
for protecting

the park's black rhino population.'

I'm in the Area 51 of the Serengeti.

This is where the rhinos are,
somewhere.

I don't know exactly where.

So I don't even know where
we're going, to be quite honest.

I've been told to get in this truck.

There's lots of formalities going on

cos this is pretty unique.

'All 25 rhinos in the Serengeti

have GPS trackers
implanted into their horn,

enabling the rangers
to monitor their every move

to keep them safe from poachers.'

(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

So is he...?
Your colleague is speaking to...

other rangers?

And just so I'm clear,

you're a special unit
of rangers here.

So you're not like
the other park rangers

in the Serengeti, is that right?

So you eat and sleep rhino,
your whole life is about rhino.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, Mama with her calf,
Mama with her calf.

It's just...

The calf is just
on the other side of it.

You'll see,
it's just coming through now.

I was thinking, at one stage,
we might not find them.

And to all intents and purposes,
this looks like an English meadow,

just like a summer's day,

so the fact that there's rhino
hiding in this grass is amazing

and to find one with its calf
is pretty magical.

How old is the calf?

It was born last year, in June.

'The Serengeti has five rhino calves,

and at 30 years old,

Mama has been a mother 15 times.'

Does that make you proud,
when you see your rhino?

Very happy.

(CHUCKLES)
You see, just look.

'Black rhinos
are critically endangered

after a wave of poaching
killed 96% of them in the '70s.

Today, just 5,000 survive
in the whole of Africa.'

Have you lost any rhino here yet?

Did he just take the horn?

How did it make you feel,
though, to lose a rhino?

This one.
Yeah? Yeah, because...

Presumably,
one of the biggest risks for you

is information leaking out
as to where these rhino are.

Is that why this is so secret here?

Because if people
leaked the information

of the GPS positions of the rhino,

poachers might be able to come in?

Have you got children?
Yeah, yeah.

Have your children
ever seen a black rhino?

Would you like her to see one day?

(RHINO CRIES)

These are black rhino,
this is a highly endangered species,

and to see the pride
on these guys' faces,

you know,
they were genuinely disappointed

that we might not
have been able to track them.

But to be able to see that,

that's the stuff of memories.

That is a magical experience,
thank you.

'Next time, I'm in Kenya.

I'll follow the wildebeest

as they cross the dangerous,
crocodile-infested Mara River...'

A crocodile!
It's got it, it's got it.

Oh, my God.

'..and witness the migration mass

as it reaches
its most northerly point...

..where elephants stray
into bordering villages

with horrific consequences.'

You know, it has to stop.

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