All language subtitles for tgest4324gfvd

Amboseli, Southern Kenya.

Home to a once thriving dynasty of elephants.

But since the death of their experienced leader...

this family has struggled to keep its calves alive.

But there is new hope in one determined elephant...

a twisted-tusked female called Angelina.

She is pregnant, carrying the next generation.

But she can't raise her calf alone.

She will need the strength and support of her family.

Can Angelina bring them all together...

for the first crucial year of her baby's life...

and turn around the fortunes of this dynasty?

Amboseli National Park

lies beneath the snow-capped peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro.

This morning, Angelina's family are tightly gathered around her.

And this is why.

A son...

born just a few short minutes ago.

This is Atlas...

taking his very first steps in a world of giants.

All new calves are wobbly on their feet...

and born barely able to see.

Working out who's Mum can take a bit of time.

A little gentle guidance from Angelina...

and Atlas can finally take his first feed of milk.

Elephant mothers cannot raise their calves unaided.

Like all new-born elephants, Atlas can't yet run, hide or defend himself from predators.

This is one of the main reasons that elephants live in family groups.

Angelina will need the help of her aunts, cousins and elder daughters.

Together, they must try to keep Atlas safe,

as he begins the first and most dangerous year of his life.

Four days later.

Something extraordinary has happened...

something that will irreversibly change the fortunes of Atlas,

Angelina and her family.

Overnight, Angelina has given birth to a second calf.

This is Alana, a daughter.

For elephants, having twins is so rare...

that it's only been recorded five times in Kenya.

Although this might seem like good news for the future strength of the family...

calves need so much milk and care

that raising twins is almost impossible.

There's now a very real chance that Angelina could end up losing both babies.

For a family who have lost ten calves in the last five years,

keeping twins alive will be their greatest challenge.

Angelina leads her family to look for breakfast.

Alana is busy playing.

And she's been left behind by her family.

Not a good start.

Fortunately, her elder sisters, aunts and cousins come to the rescue.

The effectiveness of these baby-sitters will be critical to the twins' chances of survival.

With the family back together again, Angelina leads them to one of their favourite feeding spots...

a vast swamp, lying in the heart of Amboseli...

supplied through the year by water flowing from Mount Kilimanjaro.

The adults wade in and start to feed.

But the twins are a little more hesitant.

Atlas encourages his sister to take the plunge.

The family venture further into the swamp in search of the best grass.

But the baby-sitters have led the twins into a patch of particularly sticky mud.

Within seconds, Atlas is in trouble.

Alana is trying to reach her brother.

Atlas is completely upside down.

As the family try to help, they only make matters worse.

Angelina pulls Alana away.

She mustn't risk losing both of her calves.

The baby-sitters are now searching in the mud for Atlas.

Miraculously, he's free...

but so exhausted, he needs help to lift his head to breathe.

His baby-sitters help him back...

to be reunited with his mother.

Elephants learn from their experiences.

And this has certainly been a lesson for Angelina, her family...

and perhaps even her twins.

Elephants need a varied diet...

and they leave the swamp to forage on the plains.

For the twins, this open ground is a great place for playing.

Like human babies, calves learn through social interactions.

At this age, even their trunk is a bit of a mystery.

Everything needs investigating, even their mother's wonky tusk...

their big sister's tail...

or their cousin's ear.

This play works both ways.

The baby-sitters must start to learn what the twins need and important bonds can begin to form.

On the horizon...

a group of bull elephants has appeared.

Males leave their families once they are about 14 years old

and spend time in bachelor groups.

One of Angelina's family is in oestrus,

four days during which she's ready to mate.

This only happens about once in every four years.

And it can attract bulls from far and wide.

Normally placid males try to get close to a female in oestrus, and that can cause chaos.

Angelina keeps the twins near to her side.

The bulls kick out when the twins get in their way.

As the competition between the bulls intensifies, alarm spreads through the family.

With the twins safely in the middle, the whole group runs.

Atlas and Alana are exhausted, trying to keep up with their mother.

But at least they've managed to get away from the amorous bulls.

Back at the swamp, this time, Angelina picks a better feeding place...

and things settle down.

A huge lone bull...

disturbed by the family's approach.

Angelina can only find Alana.

Atlas is dangerously close to the bull.

With her ears spread in threat...

Angelina attempts to drive the male away from her son...

and the rest of her family back her up.

Confronted by the united family...

the bull retreats.

Now they can take Atlas and Alana out of harm's way.

Angelina and her family are becoming a force to be reckoned with...

now able to protect both calves.

The chances of both her son and daughter surviving their first year...

have significantly increased...

thanks to the help of the whole family.

But in Amboseli, nothing stays the same for long.

Two months later and the dry season has arrived.

This is the hardest time of the year for elephants.

The knowledge of where to find food during these dry times is critical...

and is passed down by example, from generation to generation.

Angelina has taken her twins to an acacia woodland where there's still something to eat.

But acacia thorns aren't quite to Alana's taste.

With her mother distracted,

she starts to investigate things for herself.

She's now several months old and becoming very inquisitive...

as is her brother.

But neither of them knows quite what to make of this buffalo, who's trying to rest.

Not much chance of that today.

Morning adventure complete...

they're back to Angelina before she seems to have even noticed.

But as time passes, the savannah is growing drier.

Grassland is turning to dust.

There has been no rain for months.

Even the strongest may be brought down by drought.

Angelina leads the family in a never-ending search for food.

It's the youngest who, with less reserves than the adults, feel it the most.

Alana keeps falling behind.

And now Angelina's milk is beginning to run dry.

The twins are starting to compete with one another.

Although close to a year old and able to eat grass, they still need milk.

The time for sharing is over.

The twins have no choice but to keep up with their mother

as she keeps moving.

As the weeks pass, there is no let up.

The twins are close to starvation.

Their bones are showing beneath their skin and their cheeks are sunken.

But still they have to keep moving.

Angelina takes her family back to the swamp.

But even here, the grass is short and the water has turned into mud.

Alana is so hungry that she ducks her head to try and suckle.

If you're starving,

even the smallest drink of milk is worth a mouthful of mud.

The swamp is now no place for the twins.

Angelina must take them to safer feeding grounds.

But Atlas simply hasn't got the energy.

Angelina, having helped him through so much, won't leave him.

Hyenas.

They can kill babies this size.

But to even get close, they must first separate a calf from its family.

Angelina stands guard over her twins.

The members of her family now confidently work together.

The baby-sitters lead the charge.

They won't let the hyena get anywhere near the twins.

Angelina can now try to coax the calves to their feet.

First, Alana.

And with one final effort...

Atlas.

Together, they can move towards safer grounds.

In the face of extreme hardship, the bonds in this family have grown stronger.

Elephants can detect storms coming from 150 miles away.

The long awaited rains have arrived.

And not a moment too soon.

The good times are back again.

The hardest part of Angelina's journey is over.

The twins are now a year old.

Their chances of survival are now much higher.

Growing in independence and physical strength...

the twins are now at home in the swamp.

Alana's confidence may one day help her become a leader herself.

And Atlas, having survived so much,

may now have the experience to become a successful bull and perhaps father his own dynasty.

Under Angelina's leadership, the whole family is thriving.

Five more calves have been born.

The dynasty is returning to its full strength...

united by one determined elephant.

The Dynasties team spent over two years filming with Angelina's family...

gradually earning their trust

to allow them to witness the twins growing up.

The team had to learn to understand and predict the movements of the family.

But filming the bulls proved a rather different challenge.

Their extensive range takes them out of the safety of Amboseli and into surrounding farmland.

And it's here, when night falls, that the bulls come into conflict with humans.

The only way to observe them in the darkness is to use a thermal camera.

The bulls, without making a sound, sneak in to feed on the farmer's crops.

But even when the bulls are discovered, there is little the farmers can do about it.

With their entire livelihoods at stake, they try to drive off the elephants with fire.

But the bulls have become so accustomed to this that they barely pause to look up.

Conflict with humans is becoming one of the biggest threats to elephants.

Here, an organisation called Big Life Foundation is coming up with solutions

to try to keep both elephants and humans safe.

When the elephant gets into their crops, the farmer became so angry to that elephant,

so it's easy for him to spear, poison it.

Since 2011, 50 elephants have been killed in conflict in this area...

and 20 people have been killed by elephants.

If that farmer is trying to cultivate three acres and four elephants get into that farm,

they will completely finish the whole farm in two hours.

So these shelters, farmers will stay there?

Yeah, the farmers will stay there all over the night. All night?

All night. Here, we have lost a lot of people here.

An elephant trampled and killed on this spot at the farm.

The Big Life team have started to implement a long-term solution

by laying hundreds of miles of electric fencing.

The benefit of the fence coming up all along,

it will act in two ways - save the life of the farmer and also the life of the elephants.

But until this barrier is finished, a group of specially trained Big Life rangers

do the next best thing - they become a living fence.

Called in nightly by the farmers,

the rangers head across swampy ground to try to chase the elephants away.

In the pitch-black,

and unarmed except for a torch and some firecrackers, it's dangerous work.

Bulls can weigh seven tonnes and can easily outrun a human.

It's incredible that we're watching them, those rangers,

and they don't know where the elephants are.

We can see where the elephants are.

They're pretty brave guys.

The bulls are moving, but not in the right direction.

They're still eating and trampling the crops.

The elephants must be pushed back before the farmers lose everything

and before the situation escalates.

The rangers have one last resort...

their firecrackers.

Although harmless, the noise and bright light are enough to finally get the bulls' attention.

The rangers' strategy is working.

The elephants are moving back towards the reserve.

Now, the elephants have gone back to Kimana Sanctuary.

They're safe for now. Yeah. So they're in a very safe place.

So you've got to be very brave and careful.

Brave and careful. So you have to be very careful as you work.

It's pretty nerve-racking to think that in 14 years' time,

our little male twin is going to be leaving his family and braving this conflict zone.

I'm just so relieved the rangers will be here to maximise his chances.

By working tirelessly all night and every night,

this year, these rangers have prevented 180 crop raids...

and they were able to save the lives of all but one bull.

Keeping the elephants and farmers safe in this way

buys time for the longer-term solution to be put in place.

And with that, perhaps, will come some degree of harmony

in the struggle to share this land.

Poaching seems to have gone down.

What is left here is human-elephant conflict.

This is where now the war of elephant is being lived.

If we can't do something on human-elephant conflict, we'll lose all.

We need to all join hands.

We need to say, "Yes, they have the right to live."

If we can't say no to killing of elephants, then we end up losing everything.

We end up losing the beauty of the world.

Our kids and our grandchildren will not see anything,

they will just read in history, in books.

Like the dinosaurs.

Next time...

after struggling for years,

a cheetah mother may have one last chance to raise a family on these unforgiving plains.

Can she keep them safe and prepare them for a life without her? (*)

Liuwa Plain National Park.

A vast wilderness in Western Zambia.

Home to a cheetah known as Kali.

She's the longest-lived cheetah known here.

Her satellite collar has allowed scientists to follow her for most of her life.

For eight years, she's thrived on these huge grasslands.

But despite this, only two of Kali's previous 14 cubs have reached adulthood.

Now, after so many failures, she has perhaps one last chance to build a legacy.

Her three young daughters.

So far, her most successful litter.

But these plains are full of challenges.

The most difficult times for her cubs are still to come.

If she can protect and teach them...

succeed where she's failed before...

Kali may finally establish her dynasty.

Kali has spent much of her life alone.

All female cheetah are secretive and solitary.

She travels hundreds of miles, traversing her enormous range, rarely seeing another cheetah.

Apart, that is, from her own cubs.

Since they were born 15 months ago, Kali's three daughters have also been followed by scientists

and one of them, Lalu, now wears a collar like her mother.

The three sisters were once part of a litter of six.

But like so many of Kali's previous cubs, the others died when they were still small.

Managing to get the three cubs as far as this is a new milestone for Kali.

But it's one that is increasingly challenging for her.

The bigger the cubs get, the more food they need.

Liuwa is over 1,300 square miles of grassland and scattered forest.

The family are often forced to walk for miles a day, searching for a meal.

Kali needs to find something big enough to feed them all.

Cheetah are built for speed and have lightweight bodies.

Some of these wildebeest weigh three times as much as Kali.

Taking one on is a huge risk.

The sisters are much too young and inexperienced to help.

And if the cubs accidentally alert the herd...

the hunt will fail.

They stay back and watch.

The best approach is from downwind...

staying hidden amongst the trees for as long as possible.

Kali can reach 60mph in under three seconds.

She's almost at full speed before the wildebeest even spot her.

A well-aimed hoof or horn could easily kill her.

The cubs can now approach, cautiously.

Kali is so strong, she is just able to wrestle a wildebeest to the ground.

Hunting something as big as this is a risk that most cheetah here avoid.

But Kali has learned to specialise in taking on large prey.

The cubs are never far from their mother, following her lead.

But some lessons have to be learnt alone.

A mole rat...

out searching for a new burrow.

It may be small, but it's not easily intimidated.

Kali is going to let them figure out this one for themselves.

It's unlikely that the sisters have ever seen a mole rat before

and certainly they seem unaware that it's armed with enormous teeth.

The two uncollared daughters, Zoho and Tune, soon lose interest.

Lalu is a little bolder...

and much more inquisitive.

And that soon comes back to bite her.

Eventually, Lalu and the mole rat both go safely on their separate ways.

Each perhaps a little wiser.

The sisters are still heavily reliant on Kali, but they must learn the skills needed

to protect and feed themselves as quickly as they can.

It's usually the mother who chooses when it's time to leave the cubs,

rather than the other way around.

When Kali left her last litter, they were not much older than the sisters are now.

But only one of those cubs was ever seen again.

The longer she can stay and support these three, the better their chances will be.

But Kali is already old for a cheetah mother.

If she's to have another litter, she can't stay with her daughters for much longer.

A few days later.

Kali has caught another wildebeest.

But the commotion of the hunt has attracted attention.

Liuwa is home to some of the largest hyena in Africa.

Hyena usually hunt for themselves, but certainly won't turn down an easy meal.

They will kill young cheetah,

especially those who come between them and their food.

It seems that all Kali's efforts have been for nothing.

She won't risk a fight.

The family moves on.

Aside, that is, from Lalu.

She isn't willing to walk away from her mother's hard-won kill.

This is very risky.

The hyena's massive jaws could crush her.

That was just one step too close.

Another lesson learned.

Cheetah are built for speed...

not confrontation.

It's time for the cubs to try out their hunting skills.

But they'll need to start with something slightly less ambitious than wildebeest.

Pelicans.

They're not right either.

Their mother certainly knows what is...

and what isn't worth pursuing.

But Lalu can't resist investigating.

It might be fun to chase a wild cat...

but it's never going to make a decent meal.

Occasionally, even the most promising hunt can be spoiled...

by a passer-by.

And sometimes, the sisters need to look a bit harder.

At other times, the cubs just aren't able to keep up...

either with their prey...

or each other.

This chase has taken Lalu far from the others.

Surrounded by grass as long as this, it's easy to get lost.

Lalu may be the most independent of the three sisters, but she's not ready to be alone just yet.

Calling to her family might work...

but it might also attract the wrong attention.

Others are out here too...

always listening.

Best to keep a low profile.

Her mother and the rest of the family still have no idea where Lalu is.

Carried on the wind...

the faint call of a cheetah.

It's her mother, Kali.

Lalu is now heading in the right direction.

At last...

reunited with her family.

The cubs are now at a critical age, for both themselves and their mother.

It's nearly time for them to go it alone.

The next month or so will be crucial.

Six weeks later...

and the sisters have finally honed their skills.

They're now transformed, working together.

They break up the herd, allowing Kali to single out a yearling.

Larger wildebeest will try to drive off predators,

but just as Kali loses her grip, Lalu arrives to help her.

Zoho and Tune keep the other adults back,

charging the herd and stamping their feet into the dust.

With the rest of the wildebeest kept at bay, Lalu and Kali are beginning to win.

While the cubs help to subdue their catch, Kali keeps her jaws clamped on its throat.

This could keep them well fed for the next few days.

Together, they have succeeded.

But they still have the problem

of keeping possession of their hard-won meal.

Hyena, again.

But this time...

the sisters refuse to back away.

In fact, quite the opposite.

They force the hyena to flee.

They are not cubs any more.

Not only have the sisters reached a turning point, but so has their mother.

Kali is now nearly nine years old.

Many cheetah never even reach this age.

Her three daughters, her most successful family ever, may be ready to face the world without her.

But does Kali have enough time left...

for just one more litter?

A few weeks later and the rains have arrived in Liuwa.

The dry, dusty plains...

have been transformed into lush grassland...

teeming with life.

The sisters have been sheltering from an overnight storm

in a patch of scrubby woodland.

But as dawn breaks...

something is missing.

No matter how much Lalu calls...

there's no sign of their mother.

The time has arrived.

Kali has left them.

The sisters are now 18 months old.

Kali stayed with them for much longer than any of her previous litters.

Those extra months gave them the chance to practise, learn and grow in strength and confidence.

For now, these sisters have the support of each other.

And they will need it.

Life without their mother to look after them has begun.

A few weeks later...

the sisters are still near to where Kali left them.

The three of them are hungry.

They spread out, trying to flush out suitable prey from the long grass.

They still don't want to take on anything as dangerous as a wildebeest.

Not yet.

Oribi are relatively tiny.

But they're still not easy to catch.

Despite her speed...

Tune can't make up for the oribi's head start.

But Lalu is still close by, ready to join in the hunt.

One trip, and the oribi is down.

The meal is shared by all three of them.

The sisters are supporting each other, for now.

It's hard for them at the moment.

But it will get even harder.

If they're ever to have cubs of their own,

they will eventually have to go their separate ways...

and break the bond between them.

So far, they've spent their entire lives together.

But once they split up, they may never see each other again.

A few months later and the rains are drawing to a close.

Ever since leaving her three daughters...

Kali has been living out on the open plains.

Today, she seems cautious...

carefully scanning the long grass for danger.

And she has reason to be so.

Two tiny cubs.

One male...

and one female.

Kali may be over nine years old...

but once again she's become a mother.

Since their birth ten weeks ago, these cubs have been kept secret,

hidden in a den deep in the long grass.

But now, for the first time, she's brought them out.

With their mother taking a well-earned nap,

it's a good opportunity for the cubs to begin to learn how to survive here.

If she's ever to provide for litters of her own, the female cub must become an accomplished hunter.

From up here, there should be a chance of spotting prey.

But then, of course, there's the tricky problem of getting down again.

Now, learning the art of the chase.

As well as hunting, the male cub will, one day, have to challenge others for territory or females.

He needs to learn how to hold his own, even at this age.

Finally, they both need to learn how to bring down their quarry.

No peace...

for Kali.

But the early days for the family are, in fact,

the most dangerous days.

Kali lost many of her previous cubs, sometimes even whole litters,

while they were still very young.

In order to feed them, she must hunt regularly, and that means leaving them alone...

unguarded.

Without her to protect them, they're vulnerable.

Meanwhile, over 30 miles away...

Lalu.

She has split away from her sisters...

and now lives alone.

She's beginning to adjust to the solitary life of an adult female cheetah.

With neither her mother nor her sisters to help her, hunting has become much, much harder.

But her mother has taught her well.

Stay low...

and hidden until the last moment.

At full speed, her tail serves as a counterbalance

to help her out-manoeuvre her prey.

Now a successful hunter...

she's survived this most difficult transition...

adapting to life alone.

Soon, she may be ready to take on the enormous challenge of bringing up a family out here...

and follow in her mother's footsteps.

A few months later, on the far side of the plains...

Kali is still caring for her latest litter.

But she now has only one cub left...

the young male.

A few weeks after leaving the den, his sister died.

A life spent continuously on the move took its toll.

She was just not strong enough to survive.

Kali and her son stayed with the body for two days, before finally moving on.

But the male cub, with his mother's undivided attention, is growing in strength and experience.

One day, he may go on to father cubs beyond even the area roamed by his elder sisters.

Kali has now travelled these plains for a decade...

the oldest known cheetah in Zambia.

Over the last two years, she has successfully raised more cubs than all her previous litters combined.

Her daughters now range right across these plains.

Three more potential cheetah mothers.

She and they now make up almost two-thirds of all breeding females known here.

Bringing up a family on these unforgiving plains is always hard.

But despite years of struggle...

Kali's dynasty is finally...

thriving.

Ready to go. Cheetah today.

For the Dynasties team, the biggest challenge when filming cheetah is simply finding them.

Every morning, we set off between four in the morning and kind of five in the morning.

You can see the colour of the long grass here.

Cheetahs are so camouflaged in this environment and as you can see, the area is vast and wide.

Liuwa Plain National Park

has one of the biggest cheetah populations in Zambia,

but they're spread across an area of over 1,300 square miles

and individuals can travel huge distances in a single night.

Fortunately for Mark and the team, they're not alone in the search.

They're able to work with a group of dedicated researchers, the Zambian Carnivore Programme,

who have pioneered the use of satellite tracking collars

to better understand and protect the cheetah here.

These studies have given them unique insights

into the lives of individual cheetah, including Kali, also known as Cheetah 1-80.

So Cheetah 1-80 is the first cheetah I saw here in Liuwa.

When I followed her for the first time, she was still young.

Knowing what she's been through in all those years

makes her a very special cheetah to me.

She's a symbol of survival and resilience.

For me, she is the queen of Liuwa.

Working closely with the researchers gives the Dynasties team a head start.

But even then, finding the cheetah every day

in the vastness of these plains isn't always straightforward.

A lot of mornings we've got collars to rely on,

but today there's no GPS fix from the collars, so we must do it the old-fashioned way.

We're looking for footprints in the sand to try and pick up her trail.

So this is fresh and you can see the paw marks here, here and here, and just the pad there.

Oh, there goes Ason. You got something?

Yeah, we've got the tracks and they're going that way. OK.

We're very lucky, we've got amazing trackers with us and they are in hot pursuit at the moment.

I mean, they are disappearing faster than I can keep up.

By following the tracks, the team hope to be able to catch up with the cheetah.

It's pretty amazing, about four hours of tracking her, through about three woodlands, about 5km,

and she's just popped her head up over here, which is great.

Pretty impressive work by the trackers.

Working with experts like these means the team can spend as much time as possible with the cheetah,

allowing them to capture intimate moments in their lives.

She's just rolling around in front of us. It's completely magical.

The tracking work here, however, has a much more important purpose,

to help protect these wonderful cats.

It's not going well with cheetahs in Africa.

The threats cheetahs are facing now is habitat loss,

prey depletion, illegal hunting and illegal wildlife trade.

So having a population like we have here in Liuwa is very important.

Cheetah numbers have halved in the last 40 years

and the huge areas they roam makes protecting those that remain particularly challenging.

This is why the collar tracking data is so important.

We collar cheetahs to know where they go, how they use the environment.

If we can identify all of this we are able to better protect,

not just cheetahs here in Liuwa, but also cheetahs in the rest of Africa.

The collars don't harm the cats or affect their behaviour

and the protection they can give has never been more vital than now.

In the last two years, at least three of Liuwa's cheetah have died in poachers' snares.

But the collars allow park authorities to target conservation efforts where they're needed most,

helping to protect this vital population.

The battery in Kali's collar is starting to run out.

If it isn't changed soon, it may risk both the long-term study and the ability to protect her.

Working with expert wildlife vet Dr Brian Musalo, they first need to sedate Kali.

The procedure that we are doing is quite short.

Yeah, we are basically just fitting a collar.

So a short anaesthetic period would be ideal to actually do that.

It's a tense moment, but the team are able to keep the disturbance to Kali and her son to a minimum.

They get to work as fast as possible, all the time carefully monitoring the nearby cub.

How much? How much?

A splash of water helps keep her cool throughout the process.

Slowly.

In just a few minutes the collar is fitted and vital measurements are taken.

Nose to base of tail, 126.5.

Everyone else withdraws,

before Dr Musalo administers the antidote.

The effects of the drugs wear off quickly...

and Kali is soon reunited with her son.

So now she has a new collar.

That will give us the opportunity to monitor her and protect her for the next two years.

Yeah, job well done today.

The collar worn by Lalu, Kali's daughter, has shown that she roams far beyond the park,

even crossing international borders.

Data like this may one day lead to the expansion of protected areas,

giving cheetah the space they need to survive.

With only 7,000 cheetahs left in the wild, every population, every individual counts.

So every single cheetah can make a difference

and that's why it's worth protecting every cheetah that we still have.

With luck, Kali's legacy might not just be felt in Liuwa...

but play a role in protecting cheetah right across the continent.

Next time...

a clan of hyenas is thrown into turmoil...

as two contenders vie to become to queen.

But the path to power is never easy, especially when raising a family. (*)