Original subtitles

In the skies over Malawi,

wildlife vet Amanda salb is on a mission

to help an elephant in distress.

We need to get to him, we need to get to him,

we need to get to him.

There's chaos in orphan care

when a baby baboon meets his new foster mom.

She just doesn't have the moment to do what

she wants to do with him.

And a young duiker, gets her chance at freedom.

I'm going to go from the back.

It's all is a day's work

for Malawi's only wildlife rescue team.

Today, doctor Amanda salb is on patrol

with Malawi's wildlife emergency response unit.

All right.

Oh my god, look at all these elephants.

Oh!

The team has been called out to vwaza marsh,

a wildlife reserve covering 400 square miles.

An international boundary with Zambia

makes it hard to police,

so it's an easy target for poachers.

Hunting wild animals within protected areas

is banned in Malawi,

but despite this, poachers still lay crude wire snares

to trap wildlife for the illegal bush-meat trade.

Keep a visual, keep a visual.

Yes, it's just in those trees.

The snares aren't aimed

specifically at elephants,

but they do get caught up in them.

Located in south-east Africa,

Malawi is a small country that's been working hard

to protect its wildlife.

In vwaza marsh, the once decimated elephant population

is now on the rise.

Today there are more than 300,

but poaching is still taking a toll on these animals.

So we're looking at the back legs.

Amanda, her colleague Mandy and pilot Brad,

all keep their eyes peeled for any tell-tale signs

of injury on animals that have broken free from a snare.

Yeah, these guys look like they're moving fine.

- Do you agree Amanda? - Yep.

Hey, don't scatter guys.

All these guys look fine.

There are so many young ones, that is great.

Yeah, we got heaps of little ones.

Okay, there's a...

He's fine.

We've got a, is there a limp at the back?

Brad's spotted a young calf limping

on one of its back legs, typical of a snare wound.

That one. Yeah, I see.

Snare wounds can cause serious infections,

but to treat it Amanda will have to anesthetize

the elephant.

She's the only resident vet in Malawi allowed to do this.

How old do you think he was?

I would say, he has short tusks

so probably

I'd say about six.

If you guys can keep an eye cause I can't, yeah.

Yeah.

Anesthetics always pose a risk,

so Amanda wants to have a ground team in place,

just in case the elephant falls in a bad position

and can't breathe.

Hey, can you get to Craig and ask him to come?

He's another about 5 ks away, yeah?

Yeah, he's gotta go km and then take a right turn

up that north road.

Can he come? Can you guys get him here?

We probably could,

we're just gonna have to try and keep the animals

- in this area. - Okay.

Craig, you there?

This is always one of the tense moments

when you've got animals and you need the ground crew

in position, you're waiting for them to get here

and you're making sure the animals

they are doing what you need them to do.

While the ground team struggles to get close,

pilot Brad works to keep the herd in the clearing.

Though these guys are starting to split,

that's the problem.

If the elephants reach the cover of the trees,

Amanda may lose sight of the calf.

She's going to have to dart him now.

Can you see him?

He's on the left, right there.

That's him, I have a visual.

- Yeah. - Okay, all right.

Let me know when you're ready.

Okay.

- He's right at the back. - Yeah, I see him.

A moving target is never easy

and elephants can reach a top speed of 15 miles per hour.

I'm gonna get you a little bit closer now.

There's a tree coming up.

The calf's life

depends on Amanda's shooting skills.

All right, there's a gap, stand by.

I'm gonna get you closer.

All right when you're ready.

- Got him. - Whoo!

The drugs should begin to take effect

in about five minutes.

Amanda's pinpoint accuracy has paid off.

I grew up in the us. I grew up in southwest Arkansas,

everyone knows how to shoot

and grows up hunting and fishing and being outdoors.

My dad taught me how to shoot,

he taught me how to hack things with a machete,

he taught me how to not cut myself

when I'm cutting things with a knife, so thanks dad.

Amanda's work with the wildlife

emergency response unit, takes her all over the country,

treating a wide variety of animals in the wild,

but this is only one side of her job.

Her center of operations is 300 miles

to the south of vwaza, in the capital lilongwe.

Malawi's only wildlife rescue center

is a reserve spreading over a square mile

in the heart of the bustling city.

Here, a team of dedicated staff and volunteers

cares for injured and abandoned animals

until they can be returned to the wild.

In charge of them all is Dutch-born Alma van dorenmalen.

So we've got 203 animals at the moment.

I know all of them, I know where they come from,

I know their approximate age, date of birth,

I know where they live, what they need to be fed,

basically all there is to know about these animals I know.

Rehabilitating these creatures,

so they're ready to return to the wild takes skill

and experience.

I felt that he was a bit warm,

so I want to take a temperature...

The most demanding patients of all

are the orphaned babies, often snatched from their mothers

for the illegal pet trade.

This baby yellow baboon, doodle Bob,

is the latest arrival.

He's only six weeks old.

So Monique, what we're gonna do with doodle.

We're gonna start his integration today,

because we're sitting in with him for quite a long time

throughout the day, but he needs a mother.

So he is gonna be living with kezi, next door and fox,

- that is the aim. - Okay cool.

Great and you can just hold him against your body,

that's okay.

Alma's tried and tested approach

to raising baby baboons

requires the help of a willing foster mother.

One of the most receptive moms in the center is kezi.

She's already looking after a slightly older orphan

called fox.

I'm super excited.

It's also a complicated process

because for kezi it's quite tough,

it's quite stressful. She needs to take care of two babies,

it's not a natural process,

it will require patience and time from both sides.

So I'll put one pillow here and one pillow here.

Doodle Bob was confiscated by authorities

three weeks ago.

Will see how he's gonna respond. You can just sit here.

He's had 24-hour human care since he arrived.

Being introduced to his own species is a big deal.

We don't want doodle to get nervous.

This is perfect.

There's an immediate reaction from kezi.

Baboons lip smack to each other

when they communicate.

It is a positive behavior.

So she is excessively lip smacking to him

because she wants him to be comfortable.

She actually wants him to approach the fence

because she's really intrigued by a new baby.

If he moves away, just let him.

She's super-duper lip smacking, that's great.

He's interested now.

Kezi is one of 35 yellow baboons here

that Alma is hoping to set free over the next year or so.

It's the first time he's seeing bigger baboons.

Yeah.

If this fostering goes well,

fox and doodle Bob may be able to go with her.

Getting him with a foster mother

means that he will be able to grow up in a group, properly,

develop, learn baboon behavior

and that will increase his chance of being released.

If we don't do this or if we can't do this,

he will probably develop less socially

and might not make it out into the wild.

So this is extremely important that we do it

and we do it as quickly as we can,

so he can be released back into the wild.

So far, kezi and doodle Bob

are showing all the right signs.

It is a concern to me when you do these integrations.

Always, that it's not gonna work out.

I mean, I'm confident, but still in the back of your mind

you're like, "what if it doesn't work out."

In the end, it's those two that are deciding

what's gonna happen, it's not me.

Yes, okay, so this is fantastic.

His focus and his attention is already going to them.

That is extremely positive.

What I'm super happy about is that

he's been taken care of by people for quite a long time,

but he seems to be very relaxed,

showing normal baboon behavior

and is comfortable with actually kezi coming over

and interacting with him. Which is great.

I think with what I'm seeing right now

that tomorrow I'm confident enough to open the slide

and put him physically with those other two.

It's a great first step for doodle Bob.

In vwaza marsh, Amanda has darted the young elephant

injured by the snare,

but as the tranquilizer begins to take effect,

there's no sign of the ground crew.

In vwaza marsh,

the team anxiously awaits the ground crew.

Okay.

Darting in the wild is always tricky.

The calf might be younger than they'd thought

and giving too much anesthetic can be dangerous.

We need to get to him, we need to get to him,

- we need to get to him. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, we will.

- Sorry, sorry. - Stand by, stand by.

-Yeah, yeah.

I'm just going to push this female back.

The ground crew still hasn't arrived,

so pilot Brad is moving the other elephants

to a safe distance before dropping Amanda

near the now unconscious calf.

You should be able to pass that muddy patch.

It's a risky maneuver.

All right guys, I'm thinking of de busing.

- It might be an aerial de-bus. - Yeah.

All right, let me know when you're happy

with this distance.

I'm happy with the distance, yeah.

We might be able to touch down here actually.

Amanda I'm gonna need your eyes on the tail rotor

to make sure there are no bushes or trees, okay.

Nothing on the side.

All right,

Amanda just let me know about that tail rotor.

Amanda keep your eyes behind us as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you look okay.

Okay, I'm gone as soon as you let me know.

Okay stand by, stand by, stand by.

All right, we're down okay.

There's no time to lose.

Amanda needs to make sure the young elephant

hasn't had a bad reaction to the drugs.

Meanwhile Brad has to keep the rest of the herd at bay.

Elephants are protective of their young

and won't leave the calf behind.

Amanda's plan is to remove the snare, treat the injury,

reverse the drugs and leave with the ground team

as quickly as possible.

He seems to be doing okay, eh?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

I'm surprised.

Boy that's gnarly.

It's in here, you can see it.

Craig, you can, I gave him, I thought he was bigger

when I first saw him and I gave him five

and that's a bit much, but he seems to be breathing okay,

so we're just gonna get done and get him out.

Yeah.

These loop snares

are designed to trap smaller animals around the neck,

but elephants get their legs caught in them

and can die through infection.

It's kind of a little bit brutal, but...

What we've done is we've taken the snare off,

we've given him some antibiotics.

We're gonna put some...

Blah.

An antibiotic wound spray on.

What? What's wrong?

Oh god, so we're gonna put some wound spray on here

and then we're gonna wake him up.

Craig are you happy to drive out of here once I reverse him?

What, what?

No, we're all going together.

Brad is holding the rest of the herd

at a safe distance.

He'll allow them to return to the injured calf

once Amanda has reversed the anesthetic.

Got such baby veins.

Gosh I went straight through it.

This injection will wake the calf up

in minutes.

All right, if everyone can get on the truck.

We're done, let's go.

The team has to move quickly.

Amanda wants to be as far away as possible

before the herd returns.

That went really well.

We identified him, Brad kept him in the area

and then we were able to dart him, get right to him,

get the snare off and hopefully he'll wake up

and Brad will see him re-united with the herd hopefully.

Being able to remove these types of snares,

especially one that is like that

where it's just gonna keep getting worse and worse, yeah

and especially on a young one.

Ooh!

Are you okay?

I almost grabbed the axe.

We got a flat tire.

Yeah.

Flat tires are part for the course in Amanda's job.

Brad to Amanda.

But with a herd of angry elephants

only a couple of hundred yards away,

it's not great timing.

- Brad to Amanda. - Go ahead over.

Hey Brad, how's it looking up there?

Yeah, good.

[Narrato good news from Brad.

The calf is up and reunited with the herd

which is now starting to move in the opposite direction.

So getting the snare off that animal, it's great

especially with the young one

and it gives him a much better prognosis for life,

so it's a happy ending for all.

One more elephant

free to roam the great plains of Malawi.

For eleven years, the lilongwe wildlife center

has been providing a home to wild animals in distress.

What a kid.

He's such a cutie muffin.

- He is cute. - Aww!

This tiny monitor lizard

was rescued from a work site.

It's in good health, so they've decided to take it

to their release site in vwaza.

Another animal is already destined to be set free there.

A small antelope, a duiker called neno.

18 months ago, neno was rescued from the side of a road

where she was being sold as a pet,

but now she's old enough

and big enough to go it alone in the wild.

When neno first arrived at the center,

she had to be hand-reared, but for the last six months,

she's been fending for herself in a large enclosure

in preparation for her release.

The first challenge is to catch her.

While Alma tracks neno down,

Amanda prepares to anesthetize the duiker,

so they can get her into the carrying crate.

So this is a foot pistol or a pump pistol.

It's a really nice slick little piece of darting equipment.

It's only good for one shot, but it's very reusable,

it's fantastic.

I'm just wondering if it might not be a good plan

while we're up here to make another dart up

and you be up here by the fence,

so if she comes in here and you get a chance

and I'm back there that you just like snag her.

All right.

- Where is she? - She's here.

Oh I see her, okay, there.

I'm gonna need her pretty flat

cause she's at an angle, I'm gonna need to get her flat on

- because the dart. - Okay, okay.

The anesthetic will work best

if the dart hits a muscle,

so Amanda's aiming for neno's hind quarter.

She maneuvers into position for the best shot.

Jesus.

7:03.

Alma needs to carefully monitor

how long the dart has been in.

That was a fantastic shot.

In the ass.

It was perfect.

But she was moving she had just turned and I...

I know, I thought either hit her now or wait.

Seven minutes.

Something's not right.

If Amanda's dart delivered its full dose,

neno should be asleep by now.

I had a good flat on shot

and she was in the process of turning

and so I said, "I'm just gonna take it anyway."

But these types of darts,

then you really wanna get a good nice perpendicular shot,

but sometimes you also take what you can get

cause I didn't wanna chase her

all over the enclosure all morning.

I give her like 10, 15 minutes to see if we can go grab her.

Grab her?

If she lies down. I think she's gonna lie down

in like 10 or 15 minutes.

Yeah, there we go. Perfect, okay, she's lying down.

Neno might be down, but she's not out.

It's 30 minutes since she was darted

and now the drugs are likely to start wearing off.

We're waiting for the box to come down here

and be ready because it's hard if a

duiker is not fully under, it's a really hard to restrain them.

They can kick, their hooves are really sharp.

This is a female so she doesn't have any horns luckily,

but you can imagine how tough it can be

if you have an animal with horns.

Okay, let's do it.

So what's gonna happen is I'm gonna go from the back

and you're gonna go from the side, this side

and let me see if I can grab her.

Just wait, just wait.

Research vet, hezy, is drafted in to help.

It's okay, I've got her.

Got her?

All right, cover her eyes

and let's then just take her over there.

Don't bring the towel.

Oh fantastic.

Gate please.

Can someone open the door?

Right.

It's all right, come here ethena,

give that sub-cu and mineral ion.

A second drug will completely reverse

the effects of the anesthetic.

Okay, reversal is 7:30.

It works almost immediately.

It's okay you're fine.

Everyone's fine, everyone's fine.

Okay, it's good, she's standing.

It's a dramatic start to the day

and there's still a seven-hour journey to vwaza ahead,

but neno is one step closer to freedom.

At the other side of the center,

it's feeding time for the yellow baboons.

Like neno, many of them have been rescued

from the illegal pet trade.

Release manager Mandy harwood,

regularly monitors their rehabilitation.

I just love baboons.

They have these like crazy personalities,

they're interesting, they're dynamic,

they can like understand your facial expressions

and I just think they're the coolest creatures here.

Mandy's hoping to form a cohesive troop

out of these rescued baboons and release them in the wild,

but it's not straightforward.

Baboons are super, super, super, super social

more so even than humans.

When composing a releasable troop,

we take into consideration numerous things.

Physical factors, psychological factors, social dynamics,

hierarchy, relationships between the individuals.

So if you're just tossing like new kid into class,

it's gonna take a while to make friends,

to integrate themselves in the hierarchy

that's already established,

so it definitely takes a long, long time to sort that out.

The best thing to do for baboons

in order to prepare them for release

is to put them with other baboons.

Doodle Bob, the orphaned yellow baboon,

still needs to bond with a foster mom

before he can meet the rest of the gang.

Okay.

Yesterday, his initial contact with kezi

went well, but today, something's not right.

Alma's called in the vet.

You can come from this side probably.

Today, Alma's hoping to introduce doodle Bob

to his foster mom, but the infant baboon seems lethargic,

so visiting British vet, doctor Sophie widdowson,

is giving him some fluids.

So we're giving him fluids

just because he hasn't been drinking all of the milk

that he needs to, so it's just to support him a bit.

Some vitamin c and vitamin b in it and he will be good.

Great.

Oh bless.

Thank you very much, he behaved very well.

- He was very good. - Fantastic.

With doodle Bob more alert,

it's time for him to meet his foster mom kezi

and her other foster son, fox, face to face.

I'm gonna throw a couple of peanuts

to the other side of the enclosure to make kezi move away

because I need her not to be at this slide

when I'm gonna put doodle Bob in.

This is the first time doodle Bob

will have left his human carers,

so Alma doesn't know how he'll react.

Good, kezi is going over.

She's just lip smacking, making him feel comfortable.

He's a bit nervous about it.

He's a bit too far away now from the slide,

he comes back, playing.

Great, that's good.

In the wild, baboons can live in groups

of up to 200, but here,

foster parenting takes place under quarantine.

This is the first time the older orphan, fox,

has had another youngster to play with.

Fox is super interested in him which I'm not surprised by.

He needs a playmate.

The advantage of this is, of course,

he's quite comfortable, so that's great.

The disadvantage is nothing happening between kezi and him.

Okay, there you go.

Kezi is trying to lip smack and trying to smooch in.

I mean, it's okay, I'm a bit concerned that doodle Bob

gets too tired and it gets a bit too much as you see

and that we have a bond between fox and doodle Bob,

but not between kezi and doodle.

Fox, is having the time of his life.

But kezi can't engage.

That's just what she just doesn't like

the whole hectic... them playing.

Great, she's holding him, she's trying to hold on to him.

He's in the right position,

he's already in the right position

and he's sitting still.

Wow!

Okay, great!

How many seconds?

It as just five seconds, but perfect.

If this relationship's going to work.

Kezi!

Alma needs to see that doodle Bob

will climb onto kezi's stomach

and cling on as she walks around.

Okay, she pushed him away. It's not ideal.

She just doesn't have the moment

to do what she wants to do with him,

so I don't want her to get too frustrated

and start moving him around in a way that makes him upset

and I want him to also not get completely exhausted

because that's not very nice.

So he will keep on playing unless I break it up.

Unfortunately, the dynamic doesn't change

and kezi is increasingly taking out her frustration

on doodle Bob.

Kezi.

Rob, I'm gonna have a break.

I am going to try to pull him out,

so can you try to throw some peanuts in the corner.

Kezi.

Having patience with this kind of process

is the key to a success,

because if you rush things,

animals get frustrated, you can tell.

If I push this and if I traumatize him,

I've lost everything that I wanna achieve.

Amanda is nearing the end of her journey

to vwaza with neno the duiker, and the monitor lizard.

This is a well-worn seven-hour drive for her.

The mix of marsh and plain with forest and grassland

makes vwaza a perfect release site for all sorts of animals

that are rehabilitated at lilongwe wildlife center.

The team has built a special enclosure here

where animals can get used to their new environment

before being set free.

Research assistant pili, will be responsible for neno,

for the week that she's in the enclosure.

It's gonna be very important to monitor neno

over the next week to make sure she's eating normally

and she's moving normally

and that way we can be sure that all the discomforts

that she suffered during the journey

have completely resolved themselves

and she's ready to be released.

Right, let's just do this.

Now, open it and push it towards, pull that door open.

Okay.

More again, okay, fantastic.

Aw.

She says yum, a mango.

Neno will spend a week in her new enclosure,

but Mandy has decided the little monitor lizard

doesn't need to wait for release.

Hey yesaya, how are you doing?

He's never lived in captivity

and instinctively knows how to fend for himself.

Wow! Whoa!

I think release is the most important

aspect of the job.

Everything that goes on at the wildlife center,

all the rescues, all the rehab, all the vet care,

it all is for this.

This is ultimate goal of all of our work,

so it's nice to see animals finally outside.

Do you want to grab him without him biting you?

I will do that happily.

- Yes, okay. - Okay, there we go.

There we go.

One last bite and there he goes.

Alma has been trying for a week

to get orphan doodle Bob

to bond with his new foster mom kezi,

but they've hit a stalemate.

Kezi has been left frustrated by fox's over excitement

at having a new playmate

and has been taking it out on doodle Bob.

Kezi.

He's distressed and Alma is worried.

So social animals should not harm babies technically,

but then there's still this voice in my head saying,

"well she is a wild, adult,

female baboon with huge canines."

So technically she can inflict massive injuries on him.

Eventually, Alma's forced to call a halt.

Alma must find a way to bring

kezi and doodle Bob together.

She can't risk breaking the bond between fox and kezi

by splitting them up, but she does need fox

to stop interfering.

She returns doodle Bob to his own enclosure

on the other side of the fence,

in the hope that kezi's motherly instincts

will kick back in.

What we're seeing now

is that kezi is trying to make multiple attempts

within a time frame of like 15 minutes.

She's trying to make contact with doodle Bob constantly

which is great, that's what we wanna see.

So doodle Bob is also getting less nervous of it.

Fostering is key to the success

of returning infant animals to the wild.

Alma's determined to try again.

Yeah, open.

Okay. Let's see.

Once again, fox starts badgering doodle Bob

who's getting anxious.

Fox just wants to play,

kezi wants to make contact,

but if he's gonna stay annoyed like he is,

it's hard for her.

This is what we wanna see.

Okay, hold it, hold it.

Good!

Great!

So what can happen, if she's gonna do this

a couple of times,

that creates the bond between them.

She wants him to calm down, but obviously that,

what he's doing that, 'ee, ee'

and then the fear grin is not helpful.

So she's doing it in quite a rough way as you just saw.

Kezi is stressed.

Okay, she's holding him.

This is really good, let's not move.

I hope fox just leaves him for a second.

Great.

Yes, yes, yes,

he's holding onto her.

So his instinct is kicking in because he wants to hold on.

So this is what we want.

The question is, is kezi gonna let him?

I'm basically rewarding kezi now,

because I know it's tough on her.

She now has suddenly another baby on her belly

and he is holding onto her.

I know kezi has a tendency to sometimes push the baby away.

I don't want that, I want them to get bonded.

So I am actually rewarding her.

It's the breakthrough Alma's been waiting for.

I just want this moment

to last as long as possible.

Foster moms can't provide everything

a tiny orphan needs,

but pairing doodle Bob with kezi

is his first step on the road to freedom.

Kezi's troop is a troop that's gonna be released

back in the wild within the coming years,

so making sure that doodle Bob and of course fox

go back to the troop is essential

because that's their first step

for actually being released back into the wild.

In vwaza, it's time for duiker, neno

to take her final steps to freedom.

Hmm?

But in the specially made release enclosure,

there's no sign of her.

Research assistant pili is all too aware of the dangers.

Here there's some lions,

leopards too.

The lion or the leopard cannot get inside the enclosure,

but neno would be freaking out inside maybe running

side-by-side,

bouncing back to the fence and can kill herself.

But Amanda is more optimistic.

I think our plan today should be to have pili

open the slide and then to just walk in quietly

and try to identify where neno is.

I bet you the grass has gotten a little bit taller

and I bet you she's in one of these little clumps

next to these trees just bedded down against the rain.

It might be that pili can gently walk towards her

and if she just gets up and starts walking away from him,

then he can encourage her to go outside.

Pili knows how to behave around animals

and how to get them to do what we need to.

That is a great quality and that's one of my

favorite things about my co-workers here,

is that they are so experienced and so good.

Finally, neno makes an appearance.

Now pili has to nudge her towards the exit.

Duikers are solitary animals, so she should be happy

to go it alone.

After more than a year in captivity, neno is free.

Do you know this is so cool for me.

This is what my work is all about,

it's seeing animals go back to the wild

or in some of these cases they've come in as orphans

and then they grow up and then they get to get their shot

at being wild, I love it.

It's awesome.