Original subtitles

Imagine a place

where the world's most endangered creatures

can roam free.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

He's warming up his legs.

Oh! There he goes. CHUCKLING

A vast wilderness...

..brimming with the intimate dramas of its inhabitants...

LIONS ROAR

..as they take their first steps, learn to get along

and confront their rivals.

In the shadow of Mount Kenya,

Ol Pejeta is one of the few untamed places left on Earth.

On Ol Pejeta, the wild really, really is the wild.

It's home to 13,000 animals...

Let's get ready to rumble! HE CHUCKLES

..watched over by a dedicated team of rangers...

Just like you take care of your kids, these are our kids.

..who every day must decide

if they should intervene in a wild animal's life...

Oh, I want to see who will win on this.

..or let nature take its course...

..as these extraordinary creatures strive to survive in the wild.

He's up. There he goes.

Nice.

It's early morning at Ol Pejeta

and the animals are scrubbing up for the day ahead.

For Mercy and Steve,

finding someone on this vast savannah plain

can take some time...

..especially when you're looking for an animal

that can run at 70 kilometres per hour.

Oh, yeah! Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I see it. I see it. There we go.

Wow. He's off again.

Cedric is definitely a good-looking ostrich.

Long, black wings with beautiful white plumes at the end.

Very flashy and well made-up

and ready for breeding.

The long, pink neck

and it gets even more pink during the breeding season.

Teenager Cedric is one of just eight ostriches left at Ol Pejeta

from a flock that once numbered over 80.

Now he's old enough to mate,

the rangers are hoping Cedric may be the key

to boosting the population.

You see how men flex around women?

I would say it's the same thing.

But right now, the females say,

"Ah, no. I'm not interested."

He's right over there.

Can you see him? Yeah, Cedric.

So far, Cedric's advances have been rebuffed.

Today, he's trying his luck

with one of the last remaining and oldest females...

..his own Mrs Robinson.

Koki is just really beautiful to look at.

She has beautiful eyelashes.

SHE LAUGHS

She just keeps blinking.

She's just an independent lady.

A woman who...who knows what she wants.

She's the more experienced,

so it's going to be a little bit of luck

if Cedric is going to win her over.

Like any other bird,

the males dance to impress the females.

Cedric tries to spiral his head all the way down

and that's actually, you know, copied by a lot of African cultures.

I mean, it's called a Chini Kwa Chini dance.

It's a lot of effort for them to do that,

but Koki's not that easily impressed.

Has that dance worked on you?

SHE LAUGHS

Have had I had success

with the Chini Kwa Chini dance? Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Another story for another day.

But Cedric's moves don't seem to be working on Koki.

Though, he's not giving up just yet.

Cedric must keep dancing until Koki is impressed.

When she's impressed, she drops her feathers down.

Cedric will flap his wings really, really strongly...

..to just, you know, announce his presence.

Wow.

I can't believe it.

Amazing.

Really excited that finally Cedric impressed Koki enough

and they're together.

But Cedric still has a lot of work to do

to save the ostrich population at Ol Pejeta.

We had so many and now we have so little.

We would hate to lose ostriches.

That would be a disaster.

If we don't find a solution to this situation,

I would feel I have lost.

For animals, it is survival for the fittest.

So, if you are injured,

if you're sick or unable to keep up with the herd,

you'll be left and you'll be eaten.

That's why we call it the wild.

We try to leave wildlife to its own devices as best we can,

because it's not a zoo.

This is nature.

There's one animal at Ol Pejeta

who has survived the dangers of the wild

longer than most.

Sior is one of the oldest lionesses on the savannah

and has raised eleven cubs against the odds.

Sior is very tough.

She's known to protect her cubs at all costs.

She lost her tail in a big, brutal fight defending her cubs.

Sior leads a pride,

which includes her two sisters and their children.

She also recently gave birth to three of her own cubs...

..leaving her with more on her plate than usual.

So, the lions are still hiding. We can see them.

Using their radio collars,

Nelson keeps track of the pride.

Today, he's checking up on its newest members.

I love lions.

They are like family to me.

I've tracked them for six years now.

Sior's triplets, Kim, Chloe and Junior,

are just three months old.

Still suckling and reliant on their mum for their every need.

Sior is very patient with her cubs,

even when she appears tired.

Similar to my mum,

who was very kind, caring,

you know, taking care of us.

Junior seems to be the brave one.

SHE GROWLS

A bit cheeky.

He doesn't have limits.

The cubs that show more braveness,

they have a higher chance of survival.

The first time you find them with cubs,

we get a glimpse of hope

that the population of lions is going to go up.

Only one in five cubs make it to adulthood.

To grow stronger,

the triplets need to start eating solid food.

But too young to hunt,

Sior must leave them alone while she goes out in search of prey.

Lions would hunt any animal, given the chance.

So, this just means that you go around

creating enemies everywhere you go.

A buffalo has just turned up.

It looks like he's picked up the scent of the lions.

Buffaloes and lions are mortal enemies.

HE GROWLS

Buffaloes are clever.

They know very well that lions are the guys who are going to eat us

when they grow up,

so the best thing is to eliminate them while they're still young.

They'll chase the cubs and they'll kill them.

So, we can see the buffalo stops and lifts his head

to try and get wind of the direction of the lions.

A buffalo's keen sense of smell

can detect a lion from over a mile away.

Unaware of the threat,

Junior leaves his hiding place.

As more buffalo pick up the cubs' scent,

Junior's sisters, Kim and Chloe,

come looking for their brother.

Sior, returning from the hunt,

must act fast.

But has a tough decision to make.

Sior knows very well

that buffaloes are definitely more powerful than her,

but she has to be clever here.

There are more and more buffaloes coming.

Is she gonna defend herself or the cubs?

Sior puts herself between her cubs and the buffalo herd.

But she can only hold them off for so long.

SHE SNARLS

In the confusion, Sior, her cubs and the pride scatter.

This is a very intense moment.

Sior can just hope that the cubs have taken cover,

have been able to hide.

But we just hope that, you know, they make it.

We just hope they make it.

For all species, securing future generations is vital.

For Africa's rapidly decreasing lion population, every cub matters.

Since the buffalo stampede,

there has been no sign of Junior or his sisters.

So... Right over there, we can see a lot of buffalo footprints.

The ground was... Had a lot of mud, like there was a stampede.

We are not sure whether the lion cubs have survived.

From the situation, it's quite ugly.

I have been tracking Sior. We followed her for nearly 3km.

She is trying to find her cubs.

SHE WHINES

There's a sound she started producing, calling the cubs.

SHE CALLS

CUB RESPONDS

I think Sior has gone just behind the bush over there.

Eventually, Sior finds one of her daughters,

Kim.

She was still not dead. She tried licking her up.

But it was too late.

It's really heartbreaking. She needs to be strong.

CUB CALLS

CUB CALLS

Then Junior came running.

It was a wild moment for me because if you look around the stampede

that was there, you cannot believe that anybody survived.

But Junior's sister Chloe is nowhere to be seen.

And with the buffalo still in the area, Sior has to make a decision.

It was getting dark.

And she knew that the life of the health cub meant everything

to her at this moment.

And she had to make her way back to the pride.

It's a very sad day for me to witness her struggling.

The lions are part of my family. Sior is a friend to me.

I've known her for the past six years.

I can see a mother that has just had the worst day of her life.

When a species is under threat, or an animal in trouble,

it can also be horrid for the rangers.

It's really a deep connection. You're playing the role of a mother.

The naughty... The naughty one. The very naughty boy.

To me, come on, hey.

You get to know the animal characters over time.

But you can't afford to get too attached.

These are wild animals.

We're heading out to check the ostrich nest.

Let's hope that we find something. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed.

It's been over two weeks since ostriches Cedric

and Koki were seen hitting it off.

This morning, the rangers are heading out to see

if the pairing has yielded more than just romance.

No, no!

Oh, my God! Ooh, I think there are more than eight!

That's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

11,

12, 13.

Oh, my word!

OK, this is great! SHE LAUGHS

13 eggs... I can't believe it!

The odds that Cedric and Koki had had to go through for them

to get 13, amazing.

No-one won the bet, so I'm happy that I won't be doing the dance.

Really? LAUGHTER

Weighing as much as 12 chicken eggs each,

these are the first ostrich eggs seen at Ol Pejeta in months.

But producing the next generation still hangs in the balance.

No chicks have survived for several seasons

and the rangers need to know why.

We're putting cameras next to where the eggs are.

We want to know exactly what happens

and answer why we are still losing them.

Koki and Cedric will both be under scrutiny.

For a species that's millions of years old,

the ostriches are no dinosaurs when it comes to equal opportunities,

with both parents sharing incubation and guard duties.

It will be a huge shame if the eggs are not able to survive to maturity.

Many animals rely on strength in numbers to help

insure their survival, including baboons.

But this morning,

Ranger Steve has been tracking an individual who he's seen out alone.

I'm looking for a baboon, a male, a big male baboon

that we have named Oscar.

He's very easy to tell from the other males

because he lost the arm, almost to the joint.

After losing an arm in a fight for dominance,

Oscar was shunned by his last troop.

I feel sorry for Oscar.

It's very risky being a lone baboon, out in the plains.

His best chance of survival is to find another of Ol Pejeta's

five troops to accept him.

Today, he's arrived at one of the largest.

But like all baboons, this group of 120 are wary of outsiders.

You cannot just come and join a group...

..because you don't know how the others will react.

He has a big task ahead of him to get himself accepted.

It's going to be tough.

For now, Oscar watches from the sidelines,

as the group engage in their favourite bonding activity.

Grooming really enhances the social bonding in a baboon's troop.

It's very intimate. The baboon being groomed is so relaxed.

You find them closing their eyes and stretching their limbs.

That feeling you feel, you're having a warm shower after a very

tough day is the same they feel when they are being groomed.

With the baboons at their most relaxed, Oscar makes his move.

And quickly, a female approaches him in the hope of a gentle caress.

He just touches them and then stopped it

and because Oscar is losing the arm, he cannot really groom.

So they say, "OK, if you are not grooming me, I'll not groom you."

Is it seen as rude if you don't groom? It is.

It is very rude

because it's always like... I groom you, you groom me.

Oscar's inability to take part seems to have angered

some of the troop's males.

In a show of dominance, one of them attempts to mount him.

A male mate another male... Like fake mating.

To intimidate the other male, to tell him,

"OK, I'm more senior than you. Please respect me."

But Oscar stands his ground.

And the intimidation escalates.

Fights in baboons can get so violent.

They've been known to kill each other.

LOUD SCREECHING AND BARKING

SCREECHING AND BARKING

He has nowhere to go, he has no troop to join.

It's that moment of life you get

and he has no choice to stand his ground.

He has to fight back.

He has to prove by all means that -

I should be accepted as a new member of this troop.

The buffalo herd that attacked Sior's cubs have moved on.

She's returned to search for her missing cub, Junior's sister, Chloe.

CUB CRIES

Hearing her cry, Junior leaves his mum's side.

CUB CRIES

There was the other sister, Chloe, who was in real pain.

She was dragging, you know, her hind legs.

And she was in a very, very bad shape.

CRIES

She's trying to walk towards the mother.

But she can't.

Unaware how badly injured Chloe is,

Sior tries to lead her back to the safety of the pride.

SHE CRIES

The rangers track Sior and the cubs

until they reach the rest of their family.

I think we've got less than 12 hours before that cub succumbs

to its injuries.

This is the saddest moment I've ever experienced.

It must be very tough for Sior. She needs to be strong.

She's still the leader of the group.

But every animal would mourn.

Just have to sit tight and see what happens.

Out on Ol Pejeta's open savannah,

cameras have been keeping watch on Cedric, Koki and their 13 eggs.

Mercy and Steve are going to check up on them.

We haven't seen Cedric in a while, or Koki either.

Really looking forward to what we are going to find today.

Oh, my God. No. What?

Oh, my God.

This is devastating.

It was just... My heart sank.

I knew that that was a whole generation.

We've just lost them.

What do you think? This looks like... A buffalo? Yeah. It looks fresh.

Whatever happened there, I mean, it just seemed chaotic.

Let's see who did this.

At night, Cedric should be in charge of guarding the nest

with his dark plumage acting as camouflage.

Typical teenage dad. Typical.

You would expect him to be staying with the eggs,

but he just wants to be out somewhere with ladies,

partying and having fun.

Cedric is busy. Don't do that.

Where's Cedric?

A jackal.

Buffaloes? Yeah, buffaloes. It's curious.

What is this? Oh, no.

Oh, wow. They didn't do anything.

Who is that?

That's a hyena. No doubt about it. It's a striped hyena. Yeah.

It seems like she had a feast.

We might have to actually get them somewhere else

if they are going to be successful. Yeah. Yeah.

Despite the rangers' approach of allowing nature to take its course,

Ol Pejeta does have a special area fenced off from predators.

We want to save them, at least the few that we have left.

And that's why we are just going to move them

into another free area that's predator proof.

This is literally the last attempt before we lose them completely

at the conservancy and we don't want to do that.

For the rangers, the life of every young animal is valued.

Since Sira and her three cubs were attacked,

there has been no sign of critically injured Chloe.

I can see some of them are there.

I could not see the injured cub. We are very worried about her.

The rangers are following Sira

and Junior in the hope of any sighting of Chloe.

Mother and child.

I think she's back.

That should be OK.

It's a very happy moment.

To see the cub walking and alive is pretty amazing.

Something very exceptional.

This is a one in a billion chance.

The cub has got the spirit of Sira.

Very strong and resilient.

It's the kind of spirit that you need to make it,

living in the wilderness.

It's 7:00am.

A lone hyena is on the prowl looking for any weaker animals to prey on.

Hyenas are very opportunistic animals.

But they will hunt when conditions demand.

He arrives at the edge of baboon territory.

Oscar, still alone and injured, spots him and raises the alarm.

The hyena is a potential threat, especially to the infant baboons.

The baboons scatter for the trees.

Apart from one.

It was very surprising to me.

I would expect that Oscar would have been the first to run away.

Oscar realises this is my one golden chance...

..to prove that I'm capable of being a member of the troop.

It was such a massive risk that he decided to take.

He is in a very vulnerable position.

You can see him getting some respect because now they think,

"Oh, we thought this guy is weak, but he's good.

"Because you see now he has protected us from the predator."

The most vulnerable of Ol Pejeta's species

need more than reliance on an individual to protect them.

Today, the rangers are planning to step in and move Cedric and Koki

to the predator proof enclosure where they can lay eggs in safety.

But catching an ostrich is no simple matter.

We are chasing an animal that can run 70km per hour.

So good luck with that!

Now, let's go and get some action.

Oh! He's warming up his legs.

Oh, there he goes!

It would get a speeding ticket!

Nearly twice the speed of Usain Bolt,

Cedric is the fastest thing on two legs on the plains.

Nature 1, man 0.

We lost.

Outmanoeuvred, the rangers turn their attention

to Cedric's more mature partner, Koki.

She seems to have taken a hit.

The drug seems to have taken effect.

But even with the tranquilliser, Koki is no pushover.

She's escaping!

I want to see who will win this.

My bet is on the ostrich.

Koki! Koki!

Koki's down.

You'd say this is a brutal kind of procedure,

but it was quite important because without doing this

we cannot be guaranteed of more ostriches in the wild.

It's raining a little bit. Oh, no.

We successfully managed to get Koki in the safe area.

The heavens just opened and it just poured so hard.

A lot of rain and the operation had to be stopped.

We were not able to get Cedric

and what's really sad is Koki will have to spend the night alone.

We don't want to be responsible for breaking such a strong bond

and we don't want him to lose interest.

He might disappear and wander off to find other females

and that would be devastating.

The animals at Ol Pejeta are getting ready

for another day in the wild.

This morning, baboon Oscar is on his own again.

But not for long.

We have seen several times the females coming to Oscar.

They like Oscar because he's massive, he's a big male baboon.

After fighting off the hyena, Oscar is beginning to reap the rewards

of his bravery and finally seems to have been accepted by the troop.

You're a hero. You've defended us. You've protected our family.

Yeah, we find him being groomed.

You see he's very relaxed.

Feels like a hero and a king.

Because he's strong, he can really fight,

and maybe in the future, he might be leading the group.

The day after her capture, Koki is spending her first morning

in Ol Pejeta's predator-proof enclosure,

and her first without missing mate Cedric.

I feel sorry for Koki. She's waking up in a new area.

I would say she's feeling a bit homesickly.

Most of all, she misses her fiance.

But in 140 square miles of wilderness,

Cedric has managed to seek out his sweetheart.

Oh, there he is.

OSTRICH GROANS

To our surprise, Cedric found her.

Literally, they were just looking at each other the whole time.

It was really beautiful.

Cedric must have looked all night to find Koki.

Nevertheless, there is an electric fence between them

and she couldn't get to him and he could not get to her.

It's a perfect opportunity to reunite the couple.

But one sight of the rangers sends Cedric in the opposite direction.

You know, they are really eager to be together.

I wish I could tell him that we are doing this to have them reunited.

GUNSHOT

SHOUTING

Cedric is the kind of guy who doesn't go down easily.

Oh, no...

Cedric!

LAUGHTER

Oh, my!

He's refusing to go down. He has two darts on him. Two darts!

And he is still very, very resilient.

EXCITED SHOUTING

We finally got Cedric. We are so excited.

I mean, this is exhilarating. It's crazy.

Immediately he's released, he quickly wakes up.

He knows he has only one business, to find Koki.

Koki's reaction was amazing.

She was excited. She went right in front of him.

She just seemed really, really happy.

Their way of expressing that they are happy,

they will just try and pick out their fathers.

Sort of like grooming.

It was a beautiful reunion.

Chances are that if they manage to breed early enough,

we are going to see some chicks soon.

We can't wait.

That's an enemy from above.

Is it dangerous if it doesn't get found?

We are really worried.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media