All language subtitles for The Great African Migration 3of4 720p HDTV

The Maasai Mara, East Africa.

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

HOOVES THUNDER

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.

HOOVES POUND

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.

Wow.

And the perilous fight for survival.

I'll get up close with the animals.

Really? Really?
The male is right next to me.

HE GASPS

My heart's still pounding.

And meet the people...

This is nuts.

..who are an integral part of this.

One of the large mammal migrations
on Earth.

It's September.

I'm on the third leg
of this great migration

that began seven months ago.

Back 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.

Here in the Serengeti, the healthy
ecosystem is one driven by
wildebeest.

If you imagine it's a big engine,
the wildebeest are the major cog.

Everything else sort of spins off
on the side of that.

He GPS-collared four mothers
so that we could follow them.

So far, the herd has battled drought
and was divided in two,

as hungry animals scoured
the barren earth in search of food.

Since they started their epic
journey, the wildebeest have
travelled 300km,

crossing the border from Tanzania
into Kenya,

where the reserve is divided in half
by the snaking Mara River.

The herds have now rejoined here.

And this is where
they face their next challenge.

I'm in Kenya. I've followed them all
the way up through Tanzania,

through the mighty Serengeti, and
now I'm here at the Mara River.

I've always, always
wanted to come here.

This is a pretty scary place if
you're a wildebeest.

It's full of crocodiles, hippos

and, for our youngsters, they're
seven months old or so now,

this is pretty much the biggest
obstacle they're gonna ever face in
their lives,

because it's not just the
predators in there,

it's the fast-flowing water,
the sheer volume of wildebeest.

Drowning is
a very real probability here.

I want to find out if our four
collared wildebeest are still alive,

so catch up with Grant who's been
tracking their movements.

So we've got Jane, we've got
Virginia,

we've got Diane, and we've got -
Rachel. Rachel.

So which wildebeest is closest to
us? That's the most important thing.

That's right. I looked this morning,
and Jane is just over here.

So she's across
the Tanzania border here.

The other three
are still on this side of the river,

and they're all still alive, more
importantly. That is some very, very
good news.

They have this big, obvious obstacle
which we can see glinting in the
sun. Yes. The Mara River.

This is the only source of water
anywhere in the Serengeti right now.

That's why all these wildebeest are
here. That's why Jane's here,
she needs that water.

The other problem is that water's
full of crocodiles and strong
currents and all this sortof thing,

and she has to cross back and forth,

so she needs it, but it's a
dangerous resource at the same time.

Which way, Grant? Yeah, straight
ahead. Straight ahead? Yeah.

TRACKER BEEPS

Towards this group over here?

I think so. Just let me listen.
No, it's not that guy.

I think it's over this way actually,
off to your right. To my right? Yes.

Grant and I
are eager to lay eyes on Jane,

whose calf had died
the last time we saw her.

It's a needle in a haystack, but we
have modern technology to help us.

It's nice, they're all walking by...

Actually, that's her there. I think
that's her. Where?

Right at the very back of this group
here. She's just grazing just now.

I think I'm being blind.
Oh, hang on.

There you go, there she is.
That's her. That is amazing.

That is amazing. Welcome to Kenya.
That's right!

Can I see your visa? Passport,
please? Immigration.

So she looks to me, I'm no expert,

but she looks like she's in
relatively good health. Yeah, she's
in good nick.

She'd be in probably better health
than all the other females

because she hasn't had to produce
milk for the entire trip.

And it's most likely
she's eating for two again now.

She's eating for two,
I'm sure of it. I'm sure of it.

90% of these females here would be
pregnant already.

This season's calves
are now seven months old.

They're weaning,
and need all their strength.

Is this almost the moment, a bit
like a boy becomes a man or a girl
becomes a woman? Yes.

Is this when a calf becomes
a wildebeest?

It's well on the way to being
a wildebeest,

to relate it to humans. It's about
the age of a ten-year-old.

They don't actually achieve
adulthood for another
year-and-a-half.

Keen to understand
what these crossings are about,

Grant and I speed down to the river
where a big herd is building up.

And they won't cross just the once.
Over the next few weeks,

as the river winds its way through
the national park,

the wildebeest will have to cross as
many as ten times,

back and forth,
to reach the best feeding grounds.

Is there much data as to who's up at
the front there, or can you even
see?

Is it males? Is it females?
Is it mothers with calves? Mmm.

Well, at this distance
we can't really tell,

but generally it's the males
that come in first.

They're sort of the boldest. They'll
come in and start having a look -

Boldest or hungriest?
Boldest, really.

Well, stupidest, perhaps.

Across the river,

the pressure ridge of wildebeest
is building up...

..pushing the frontrunners
to the water's edge.

It's a classic situation of

it just takes a long time
for things to happen suddenly.

You wait and wait, and then suddenly
they all decide and they cross.

Capturing that moment,
it's a sort of "a moment".

But it could happen at any point.

There's danger all around.

Look, look, look at this here.
A croc coming in right there.

Oh, wow, look at that.
Wow, look at the power of that.

Yeah, that just looks evil,
doesn't it?

This five-metre crocodile,
weighing up to 700 kilos,

may not have eaten since
the wildebeest were here last -

a year ago.

Eventually, one brave male finds
the courage to slowly enter the
water

and kick-start the crossing.

This gets the attention
of a deadly predator.

Yeah, look at that, there it goes.
Oh, God.

I don't know if I can look at that.
That's unbelievable. That's scary.

That is the stuff of nightmares.
Yes.

Aiming straight for the herd,

the crocodile prepares
to make its attack.

But the full force of the stampede
tramples it underwater

before it can launch its strike.

Whoa, God, come on, come on.

Which side are you on? The croc's
side or the wildebeests' side?

Wildebeests' all the way.

Unnerved, the herd panic and turn
back to the refuge of the shore.

Just a handful, including the brave
male who started the crossing,

have made it
safely to the other side.

And now look, they're all going.
It's like someone just went,
"Everyone out." Yep.

Exactly. Somebody's lost nerve at
the back there and just decided
that's it.

As quickly as they arrived and now
are leaving,

I suppose they can reverse and come
back again. Yeah.

And, you know, any one of these
individuals may have been

having a look at this river
multiple times today.

For now, the fear of predators
has prevailed.

But the great temptation -
and the need for fresh grass -

means the wildebeest must face
the river and its dangers... again.

It's morning in the Maasai Mara,

and the herd that failed to cross
the river yesterday

has again made its way
to the water's edge.

They've travelled a further five
kilometres upstream,

in search of an entry point from
the eastern side to the west.

An army of 10,000-strong
have lined up, summoning courage.

But they've not chosen wisely.

This stretch is famed for its strong
current,

and has claimed many victims.

Grant and I don't wait long before
a plucky leader

looks set to start the crossing.

I can see there's one lone one
coming down.

Go on. Missing a horn.
Look how old that thing is.

Oh, yes. Would he have lost that
in a fight?

Probably, yeah. Here's a typical
case of somebody who's motivated,

you know? And an animal like that
might be making a decision

that's not necessarily
in the interests of everybody else,

but their own self-interest, to have
a drink or maybe to cross.

If they cross, everybody else might
think, "Well, we'll do it, too."

It's interesting that they're
drinking in threes.

Mm-hm. Is there any significance
to that? No. I don't think an animal
feels secure drinking by itself.

That animal with the one horn
was probably trying

to recruit somebody else
to have a drink with.

You know, "Aren't you thirsty?
Come on.

"Come down to the water with me."
Like us going to the pub. Exactly.

You don't wanna drink by yourself,
do you?

But it's one-horned companion that
takes the first plunge.

The floodgates have opened,

as more and more wildebeest
follow suit,

hurling themselves
into the unknown waters.

Look at the leaps they did there.
Fantastic.

A big leap and a splash.
This is amazing to watch, isn't it?

They pull out of the water and
they fully submerge.

Yeah, that's right. A big jump in.
It's a bit like when you swim.

You push yourself off the side and
get a little bit more propulsion.

Cos they want to be in that water
for as short a time as possible.
That's right.

The objective is get across as
quickly as you can.

This is an astonishing spectacle,
I have to say. It is, isn't it?

In this section of the Mara,
the greatest threat is the brutal
current.

The water might not be deep but
their hooves struggle over the
slippery stones

as they desperately try and fight
their way out.

You can see where the injuries are
occurring here, can't you? As soon
as they start scrambling out,

and you're on unstable ground,
trying to climb over slippery rocks,

other animals are jumping in on
your back. You're trying to get out
quickly,

you've got crocodiles coming in from
all sides, it's just chaos.

The herd is now too great -

and there's no space for the backlog
to enter the water.

As the huge volume of wildebeest
crush each other,

a breakaway group is forced to find
another crossing point

in a deeper part
of the river downstream.

This is a really fast water
that they're going through. It is.

Will he get through that? Ohh.
Oh, my God.

A torrent of wildebeest are
unleashed,

as the remaining herd surge forwards
and pour into the Mara.

That's a youngster. It looks like
it's been separated from its mother.

I don't know if that thing's gonna
survive, actually.

It's getting pushed further and
further away.

For this young calf
the journey is over -

as it's swept away by the force of
the river - and drowned.

A real struggle for life
right in front of us.

Do you know, when you think about
it, this river is life.

Cos this is water, and water is
life.

And, at the same time,
it's death as well.

Because you have to cross it
and because it's full of predators.

So it's this weird mixture of life
and death

happening at the same time.

It all kind of meets,
in time and space, right here.

Weakened, the herd head into the new
pastures

they've just risked their life for.

I leave Grant behind and follow
them.

The wildebeest head west and north,
spreading out into the reserve.

They're reaching the most northerly
point of the migration...

..where over 500 elephants
roam the edges of the national park.

Outnumbered, the elephants, who also
migrate, need to search further

for food and stray into bordering
farmlands.

COWBELLS RING
It's here where trouble beckons,

as they trample and raid
the croplands.

I've come to meet Daniel,

a local farmer
who's at war with the elephants.

BOTH SPEAK LOCAL LANGUAGE

I'm Ben.

So what's going on?
What are you up to?

Ah.
HE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

Elephant dung.

This season's harvest has been
decimated by the elephants,

and Daniel now has to borrow money
from his family

so he can send his kids to school.

If you were a farmer out here and
your livelihood is threatened

on a daily basis by elephants,

you know, you're gonna be angry,
you're gonna be cross.

you're gonna be worried.

It's the million-dollar question.

How can people, how can man and
animal cohabit Africa?

Where there's huge pressures on
everything here, from the resources

to just the land itself.

Trying to find solutions to the
human-elephant conflict

at the park borders is Marc Goss
from the Mara Elephant Project.

So you can see the Mara River.

By GPS collaring elephants, he's
able to track their movements,

and when they stray into farmlands,
deploy a rapid-response team that

drives the herds away.

We don't want to be more than
an hour away from any elephant,

one of our collared elephants.
And so we're got 15 collars on

different elephants
across the rangeland.

We've had them on
for four years now.

Our oldest collars have just been
replaced,

and today we're recollaring one of
our big elephants, Hugo.

I can't even imagine how you go
about that. Have you got one with
us?

Right here.
So let's have a look at it.

Oh, wow. There was me thinking
it was going to be

a bit like my dog's collar. Wow.

So that's, what, a couple of kilos?
Two kilos or something?

Yeah, two kilos. About two kilos.

Here's the frequency for the VHF,
it's on here.

On the top is the GPS unit,
batteries on the bottom.

If you put that on my neck now, that
would kind of slow me down a bit,

but an elephant's not even gonna
feel that. No, not at all.

And the first thing they do when
you put a collar on is they feel it.

So they put their trunk and feel
what it feels like

to have a collar on,
and we've seen...

I mean, it's an anthropomorphic
idea,

but some of our collared elephants
come together.

We'd like to think
that they come together

to admire each other's jewellery.

Look at our collars.
"Yours is very nice.

"Yeah, I like the colouration."

Marc and I head off into the bush,

where the vet and his team have
already found Hugo.

To recollar the bull elephant
he'll have to be tranquilised,

but Marc's worried that Hugo has
wandered into a dangerously rocky
area.

And predicting where a 40-year-old
elephant is going to go

after he's got a dart in his butt,
it's difficult.

I notice, too, that this is where
thousands of the migrating
wildebeest

have stopped to feed.

The riskiest part of the whole
procedure is tranquilising Hugo.

In charge is the park's vet,
Dr Limo.

Then once you've darted,
how long until it goes down?

Mmm, anything between
8 to 15 minutes.

That's when the work starts? That's
when it starts. Is it a race against
time?

Do you need to do it as quickly as
possible? Sure. With this kind of
weather we need to work quickly.

When you say, "This kind of
weather," do they get hot? Yeah,
they get hot,

so when they're down we need to
work very fast.

But, of course, with a lot of care.

Yeah, yeah.
Listen, I'm all hands.

So if I can be your assistant today,

I'm willing to do just about
anything.

OK, welcome onboard.

The dart has a fluorescent feather,

so it's easy for the team to see it
and retrieve it when it falls out.

We get as close to Hugo as possible,
so Dr Limo can take aim.

HUGO BELLOWS

(It was a good shot.)

Hugo has run off that way,
so this is exactly what we wanted.

And it's now counting down, so we've
got ten minutes or so,

he's gonna start getting very woozy,

and then it's gonna be a mad rush
for us to change that collar.

What we're hoping is he doesn't head
towards the rocks,

which is where he's kind of heading.

It's quite nerve-racking knowing
that it could kill itself

if it lands the wrong way.

He's quite calm now.

Yeah, my heart's pounding.

I'm on the northern edges
of the Maasai Mara,

with the Mara Elephant Project,

where Dr Limo has just shot
a tranquiliser dart into Hugo,

the bull elephant.

We're going to change his GPS
collar, which tracks his location.

So that if Hugo strays near
bordering farmland,

a team can be deployed
to herd him away.

Here he goes, he's down.

Here we go,
we've got Marc running up now.

Do you want me to come out, Dr Limo?
Yeah, sure. OK.

I'm coming out as well.

Steady!

Steady!

Keep going!

OK, guys. OK. All right.

Oof.

With the African midday heat
reaching soaring temperatures,

the race is now on to treat Hugo.

It's all hands on deck
to fit his new collar.

MECHANICAL WHIR

Just a bit. Just a bit.

So I'm basically cooling him down.

An elephant can't sweat
so use their ears to flap,

and that's how they reduce
their body temperature.

Obviously it's incapacitated now.

So we just pour little bits of water
on its ear

that hopefully stop it
from overheating.

You can hear it's almost snoring.

SNORTING
There's a little stick in its trunk.

It's what's holding the trunk open
so it can breathe.

That was the first thing they did.

HUGO SNORTS

Earlier this year, Hugo was treated
for an infected wound.

Now he's unconscious,
it's an opportunity to give him

a preventative shot of antibiotics.

That's a big dose of antibiotics,
Doctor. Wow.

HE LAUGHS

20, 20, 20 several sites. OK.
The muscular area.

And you're happy for me to do it?
Oh, yeah.

OK, first bit, how much, 20?
Yeah, 20 here.

How deep do I take it? The entire
length? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK, so 20.
20. That goes to 40. Yep.

I never thought I'd give an elephant
a shot of antibiotics.

There you go. Rub that clean.

Good boy. Good boy.

Wow. That is something.

Hugo's been down for ten minutes,

so the team want to bring him round
again in the next five.

Everyone knows exactly what they're
doing.

Eye ointment, antibiotics,
measurements,

hairs from the tail, DNA,
collar changing.

It's done incredibly efficiently,

and it's partly cos everyone knows
that it's kind of a race now.

The longer we keep him under,
the more dangerous it is.

Now Hugo has his
newly fitted collar,

Dr Limo injects him
with the reversal drug.

This is the most nerve-racking part
of the whole procedure.

OK.

So now we just wait.

(Sometimes they act.) (What, they
pretend to be asleep?) (Yeah, sure.)

(Really?)
(So that when you operate on them...

(..they can crash you.)

(Is he gonna be very cross
when he comes around?) (Oh, yeah.)

HE CHUCKLES

HUGO SNORTS

(Hugo, come up.)

Wow.

(Straight up.)

(Yeah.)

(It must be a huge relief to see him
standing up.) (Oh, yeah.)

It takes a few minutes
for Hugo to find his feet,

before ambling off
to join the rest of his herd.

Thank you very much for letting me
assist you.

That was a very special moment.
Welcome, welcome, welcome!

Do I get to call myself a vet now?
Yes.

THEY BOTH LAUGH

The day's success is short-lived.

Back at the project's headquarters,

the team get a disturbing call about
another elephant.

SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

I'm not really sure what's going on,
to be honest. Marc's just taken
a call,

and it sounds like there's a dead
elephant. Well, I'm not sure why,

whether that's it's just died of
natural causes,

or it's more sinister.

The report says the elephant has
been killed by a spear

in the bordering farmlands.

I know it's going to be brutal

but I think it's important for me
to see things like this,

I think it's important to share it
with other people. It's not...

It's not always pretty out here,
you know?

Nature's red in tooth and claw,
but so is mankind.

Whoa.

So this is the carcass.
And it looks like the rangers have

opened the stomach just to see
if they could find the spear.

So they found a hole where the spear
went in. Yeah.

And they've taken the tusks,
so the elephant doesn't have a face.

And that's not because
poachers took it. OK.

The Kenya Wildlife Service have
retrieved the tusks and taken them
to Nairobi.

Retrieved tusks are kept by the
authorities in Kenya's capital city

so that they don't end up
on the illegal black market.

This is an elephant that went into
a farm,

we're in an area where there's a lot
of farming,

so I would say it would be
a conflict.

We'll probably record this
as conflict

instead of an attempted poaching.

It's still an illegal
death of an elephant.

The work that you're doing by
putting the collars on

would've predicted, or at least
alerted you to an elephant like this

that may have strayed close to a
human... Right. ..habitation. Um...

And maybe prevented something like
this? The other thing is,

is what would the numbers be like
if we weren't here? Mm-hm.

The number of deaths.

But how does it affect you?
I'm kind of shocked when you see

a creature so majestic
dead like this.

Yeah, it makes you feel
ill to the stomach, you know?

No life in it,
without a face, it's terrible.

You know, it has to stop.

What I've discovered over the years,
and specifically over this year,

is the importance of us actually
using our technology

and using our know-how to be able to
protect these magnificent creatures

from us and from themselves.

The wildebeest have grazed across
the northern Maasai Mara for three
weeks,

and now, in search of new pasture,
they head back down towards

the river in their droves.

Today, they've chosen a notoriously
tough location to cross,

with multiple entry points.

Steep banks...

..and deep waters.

Joining them
are some of the 250,000 zebra

who also make the Great Migration.

Are they coming this way, or are
they...?

They're heading up the hill.

Oh, it's a big herd. Look at all
the dust. Look at all that dust.

Grant and I arrive just as the force
of the Mara makes itself known.

Look, that's a crocodile. Yeah.

Oh, no. There it goes.

It's got it, it's got it. It's taken
him down. The crocodile's got him.

Oh, no, it's struggling.

Look at it shaking him. It's got his
mouth up above the water.

Oh, my golly.

Oh, it's mouth is...
It's struggling for air.

It's mouth is open, it's...
Oh, no. Look.

Oh, no, I can't bear to watch.
Oh dear. Yeah.

So it's drowning him now. It's
basically holding him down. Yeah.

I think that's gonna be...
It's struggling

but I think the crocodile's got it.
Crocodile's absolutely got it.

It's disappeared with it as well.
Yeah. Wow.

With the Mara's most stealthy
predator swiping its first victim,

terror breaks out amongst
the migrating animals.

Because there isn't just one
crocodile prowling this deep strait.

In the carnage, a loan zebra makes
a mistake, and decides to swim back

to try and reunite with the rest of
its herd.

Unable to chew their food,

crocodiles use their razor-sharp
teeth to tear off large chunks

by rolling their prey.

Once they've torn off pieces
they swallow them whole.

With this crossing over...

just blood spills remain.

In the panic, mothers and calves
have become separated.

How do they reunite? Look at them,
there's so many of them.

As you can see, it's absolute chaos.

Everybody's calling to each other,
lots of grunting and groaning.

But what they're gonna do, as
soon as they're out, they'll start
calling to each other,

they'll start trying to
locate each other.

And again, they're so tuned
in to their mother's call.

It's all about imprinting
on the mother's call.

With most mothers and calves
reunited,

the herd begins to migrate away
from the river.

But there's just one lone calf left
on the bank, calling out in vain.

It doesn't seem to have a mother.

This is when a calf really does have
to stand on its own. That's right.

Will it just carry on,
a calf like this?

It might make it. It might make it.

It's just at the point of weaning
right now.

So if it's just lost its mother

and it rains and the nutrition is
good enough and it can keep up,

then it might make it.

Before the herd leave the calf
behind,

a single female races from the top
of the plain,

heading straight for the calf
on the river bank.

MOOING

They've both mooing at each other.
Oh, my God!

Oh, wow. That's hilarious.

That is amazing. They found each
other. That is amazing. Wow.

Out of a cast of thousands and
thousands... Yeah,

..they've both crossed the river and
been reunited. Yeah.

To us they all look identical, but
to them they're unique, they're
special. Wow.

I might have to have a cry.

Oh, wow. It's OK, Ben.

It's the middle of October,
and I'm in Kenya's Maasai Mara...

..where the river crossings
have taken their toll

on the herds of migrating
wildebeest.

With up to 10,000 animals
dying at the hands of the river,

there's one species that has a vital
job in clearing up their remains.

Vultures are the undertakers
of the Serengeti.

VULTURES SCREECH

But their numbers are critically
declining,

and it's a global epidemic.

I've come to see Munir and Simon
from The Peregrine Fund,

who are trying to get to the bottom
of what's going on.

We've had populations in India
and Pakistan and Nepal decline

by as much as 99%
over the last decade and a half.

And it turns out that poisoning is
one of the most major contributors

towards their decline.
And is this local communities

who are putting poison down to keep
predators away? Pretty much.

A lot of pastoral communities all
over East Africa,

they lose a cow
to a lion or a hyena,

and there's no compensation,
so obviously they'll get upset

and so they'll take the law into
their own hands.

Almost invariably, the vultures will
come down and feed on a poisoned
carcass. Yep.

And virtually every single one of
them will die.

As part of Simon and Munir's
research,

we need to find
a carcass with vultures at work

so that we can trap one.

This is looking promising.
So what I'm going to do

is we're gonna herd them to one
direction... Yeah.

..so that Simon can get out
and set the trap.

Simon attaches a simple lasso to
the ribcage of a wildebeest carcass.

The vultures flock back immediately.

And it's not long before one gets
caught.

Go, go. Come, sir. Go, Ben. Go, go.

Just chuck it right over him.

OK, good. Good lad, there we go.

Good lad.

They're really strong. OK.

It'll try and struggle.

Keep your hand where it is, Ben.
Yep. I won't let go.

Even if he takes your finger off.
OK.

Would he take my finger off? He
might.

HE LAUGHS

Quite a way to lose a finger,
wouldn't it?

We're going to attach a GPS backpack
to the vulture,

so that they can track its
movements.

So, remind me why it's important to
track vultures like this one.

It's important to understand what
their foraging range is, how far
they go.

Which are the hot spots
where they get poisoned.

What we can do in those areas

to change attitudes of local people
there,

to get them to appreciate vultures
more.

And then to identify those areas
that are safe spots

for vultures as well

so that we can spend more time and
resources protecting these areas.

Why do you think vultures have
such a bad reputation?

Well, you know, when somebody looks
at a vulture for the first time,

it's looks like they're sinister
creatures

that's feeding off people's flesh
and blood.

When Charles Darwin went on
the Beagle for his journey,

he described the turkey vulture as,
"A disgusting, ugly bird." Mm-hm.

"Born to revel in putridity."
Those were his words.

But they perform the most important
role in the savannas.

You can imagine when the tourists
watching the wildebeest migrate
at the crossing points overhere,

in the future,
if these vultures go extinct,

they're gonna have to wear gas masks
or something

because the stench will just be
overwhelming.

People will stop coming here.

The whole ecology of
this Mara Serengeti will just be

turned upside down with the loss of
vultures that we're now having.

OK, are you ready?
On three. One, two,

three.

The GPS weighs only 2% of
the vulture's body mass,

so it doesn't affect its flying
ability.

It will stay on for the next year
before it's self-released.

I don't think I fully appreciated
how important they are to the
ecosystem,

and that realisation of what
would happen here

if they weren't around
is pretty bleak, really.

This would be a toxic place.
I'd have to wear a mask.

It'd be full of disease. The body
simply wouldn't break down,

cos you see carcasses everywhere.

And it's those vultures that are
the janitors, they're the cleaners.

The wildebeest have now travelled
400km of their 650km annual trip.

And the migration's time in Kenya is
now coming to an end.

The herds are heading straight for
the Tanzanian border,

ready to cross back into
the Serengeti National Park,

where the rains have started
to ripen the plains.

It's just a mass of wildebeest,

all of whom have survived this
extraordinary journey.

These are hardy souls, aren't they?

They are. These are the ones who
have made it,

these are the winners, these are the
guys who have managed to cross

the Mara River and run the gauntlet

through the crocodiles
and managed to make it here.

Our four collared females, Jane,
Diane, Rachel, and Virginia

have also made it.

And, of course,
hiding around the periphery of this

are all those animals that were
booted out, almost,

by the mass arrival of wildebeest.
That's right, yeah.

It's almost like once the squatters
leave... Yes, exactly. ..they can
reclaim their habitat, their land.

That's right, they come back into
their home ranges again.

And obviously that habitat
has been modified.

So these wildebeest haven't just had
a negative impact on this landscape.

No. In fact, it's the opposite.

They've increased the productivity
of the grasses,

they've knocked down a lot of
the biomass,

they've created niches for other
animals to live in.

They've fed a few animals as well.
They've fed a few as well.

And how hard is this return journey
going to be for them?

They've got to get through all
those woodlands, lots of predators.

It's a tough journey and,
undoubtedly, some of these animals

that we're looking at here
are not gonna make it.

Next time.

I'm back in Tanzania,
where land predators

await the migration's return -

ready to make their attack.

It's alive, but I'm sure that
hyena's tearing off its testicles
and going in,

probably right through the stomach
right here.

Are you being serious? Yeah.

And I discover a unique human
journey

that mirrors that of the wildebeest.

Here's to the Maasai. Yeah. Oof!

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