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Namibia. One of the driest places on earth.

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Yet home to a huge diversity of animals.

Here are elephants, cheetahs, lions and rhinos.

Animals that are disappearing elsewhere in Africa.

But this animal paradise faces multiple threats.

So a team of local farmers, biologists, business people,

and volunteers are working to combat the challenges

while working around the clock to protect this refuge of the giants.

From the air, Namibia appears to be a wilderness

free from the impact of humans.

And that's true for much of the Namib Desert

that lies inland from the Atlantic coast.

It stretches more than 2,000 kilometers from north to south.

Towns and villages are rare in this harsh land.

Here, wild animals have more space than in many other African nations.

Yet some elephants and rhinoceroses shelter inside the national parks.

Many of the gray giants have sought refuge in Khaudum and Etosha National Parks.

Etosha is one of Africa's largest conservation areas,

covering an area of over 22,000 square kilometers.

A vast sterile salt pan takes up a quarter of the park.

Resources are scarce and the cause of many conflicts.

But Etosha is not as wild as it appears.

It's fenced in and locals drink from artificial watering holes.

The reason?

The national park is surrounded by cattle farms.

Lions frequently escape through holes in the fence

and attack livestock,

leaving approximately 40 lions shot dead or poisoned every year.

Not only lions are killed.

One source reported that in a single year,

poachers in Namibia slaughtered 125 rhinos.

The killing of rhinos for their horns is on the rise here.

But Namibia's wild animals face another age-old problem.

The giant herds of goats, sheep, and cattle.

Hundreds of thousands of small farmers and their families

depend on these domestic animals.

The soil is often poor, and herds graze across huge areas.

Areas that were once the domain of wild animals.

To predators, domestic animals are easy prey.

Cheetahs naturally hunt small antelope, rabbits, and birds.

They're also fond of goats

and so they've become a target for farmers.

It's a major worry.

A century ago, 100,000 cheetahs roamed across Asia and Africa.

Now, only 7,000 remain.

And Namibia is home to a third of the survivors.

Come on, tiger!

Laurie Marker, a US biologist,

has come to the defense Come on.

of Namibia's cheetahs.

She founded the Cheetah Conservation Fund or CCF,

which devotes itself to the research and protection of cheetahs across the world.

They are actually Africa's most endangered big cat.

About 80 percent of all the cheetahs found are found outside protected game reserves,

which leaves them very, very vulnerable to human-wildlife conflict.

Issues facing them

are not only that of the livestock, but also that of the wild game,

which, in Southern Africa, has a huge amount of value.

So the cheetahs are actually kind of stuck between a rock and a hard spot

in the fact that very few of them are found in protected game reserves

and there's too many lions, hyenas, they steal their young,

steal their food, kill the young.

And with that, they get pushed out

and that puts them in conflict with humans.

Casualties of the conflict with humans

are treated in CCF's operating room.

The Fund organizes seminars for farmers and education programs for schools

to counter the clash between people and cheetahs.

The facility is part of a larger conservation area

at the foot of the Waterberg Plateau.

Grassy land like this is perfect habitat for cheetahs

and a rarity in modern Namibia.

Well, these cubs came in when they were about 3 weeks of age,

so they were very small and they had to be bottle raised.

Their mother had been killed on the other side of the mountain,

in an area called Okakarara,

so they have been called the Okakarara ambassadors.

Coming in at that age,

they'll never will be able to go back out into the wild.

They are very tame, as you can see.

They are purring.

Raised on a bottle, they just think people are okay.

They are not pets.

Uh, these cats don't make good pets,

and it's actually a big problem for this species

because people think that they could be a pet.

The CCF currently cares for 36 orphaned cheetahs of all ages.

Daily feeding ensures the animals keep fit and healthy.

The cheetahs have to run hard and fast before food is thrown from the truck.

These cheetahs are permanent residents,

but others have been successfully returned to the wild.

The Fund has helped create a stable cheetah population

in Southern Namibia.

It released 13 cheetahs in Erindi, a private game reserve.

One of them, Chester, needs a new transmitter collar.

First, Chester is shot with a tranquilizer dart.

Good, yeah, we got him.

It takes about 15 minutes for the drug to take effect.

Okay.

A nice shady spot.

An experienced team replaces the collar.

The transmitter will allow the researchers to track Chester

and learn about his territorial and hunting behavior.

- See the new collar? - Yeah, it's quite flattering, isn't it?

Very interesting.

- Let's see how this goes. - It's got two.

Well, the top's usually the GPS.

Chester is measured, weighed, and examined.

Laurie removes a damaged tooth to prevent infection.

- She's allowed to do on her own. - Yes.

And then monitor what it looks. If it doesn't improve...

Chester's friend is getting worried.

Male cheetahs form hunting partnerships, a bond that lasts for life.

The patient is laid in the shade while the anesthetic wears off.

Cheetahs here are used to people.

In fact, they would not survive in the wild without human help.

Laurie's work with cheetahs benefits safari operators.

They can find the animals by means of the transmitters

and the cheetahs will not run away at the first glimpse

of a horde of tourists.

Let's go.

These little heroes may hold the future of Namibia's cheetahs in their paws.

The puppies are brought up by mom for two months before they go to work.

Anatolian shepherd dogs are ideally suited to life in Namibia.

The climate here is similar to Turkey, where they come from,

and they're used to guarding the same animals, sheep and goats.

The dogs grow up as part of the herd,

and will eventually defend their family tooth and nail.

This farm has almost 400 sheep and goats.

For 75 dollars, the CCF provides it with a guard dog.

Cheetahs used to attack during the day while jackals hunted the flock at night.

But not anymore.

The Anatolian sheep dogs have put a stop to the predator attacks.

It is a great improvement.

Because from the jackals, we did not get any loss since we get this guy.

This guy came 2014.

From there, we never lost anything,

but before, we used to lose maybe 10 in a year,

goats or sheep.

Approximately 170 CCF shepherd dogs

are now in action all over the country.

In Namibia, human and animal life is shaped by the extreme climate.

Without the annual rainy season, no life could exist here.

When the rains flood the dry riverbeds,

the natural underground reservoirs are full for months.

Plants and animals come out of a state of suspended animation.

Plants suddenly produce leaves,

while ponds are filled to overflowing with tadpoles.

Bullfrogs, weighing as much as a kilogram, mysteriously appear.

They spend only a few weeks on the surface

before retreating underground to avoid the dry season.

The wet interlude is short lived.

Desert lions are famous for their ability to survive

the extreme conditions of the Namib Desert.

These lions can live with little or no water.

This female has just killed an oryx.

The antelope's flesh and blood will satisfy her need for liquid.

Namib lion prides are protected by staff from the Desert Lion Conservation project.

They use transmitter collars to study the lions.

The organization tries to improve relations between lions and humans.

But it doesn't always work.

In 2016, four lions were killed.

Three of them had eaten poisoned meat that had been laid out as bait.

Farmers living on the fringes of the desert

are suspected of setting the trap.

Despite occasional setbacks, the project has had some success.

Local people have a sense of pride in the lions,

in part because they attract tourists,

and that brings much-needed money to the region.

These animals are unlikely to enjoy a similar level of popularity.

Wild dogs are the farmers' most feared adversaries.

If a pack of wild dogs gets into a paddock,

the result is invariably a massacre.

No surprise then that African wild dogs face extinction.

This enclosure belongs to the Harnas Wildlife Foundation,

a private organization in central Namibia.

It's dedicated to caring for injured and orphaned wild animals.

Everybody already knows this is the African wild dog.

Forty-two wild dogs are kept in several large enclosures at Harnas.

One, two, three.

The chaos is deceptive.

In fact, feeding is determined by a strict hierarchy

headed by the alpha females.

Wild dogs were once found across much of sub-Saharan Africa.

These days, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Zambia

have notable wild dog populations.

Just 5,000 wild dogs remain in the wild.

There are few species of animal that do not, at some point or another,

arrive at Harnas to be fed and cared for, including entire herds.

At Harnas, it quickly becomes clear

just how little habitat remains for wild animals across all of Namibia.

Predators like these caracals are permanent guests.

They cannot survive in the surrounding farmland.

Just slowly throw it over, okay?

Nope? Nope.

The Harnas Wildlife Foundation is home to an entire pride of lions,

the sanctuary's most spectacular residents.

One, two, three.

The lions were among the first orphans taken in at Harnas.

These lions can't be released anywhere in Namibia.

Locations such as zoos are already taken.

For the past 30 years, the work here has been more about compassion

than conservation.

For farmers, leopards are almost as hated as wild dogs.

When a mother leopard is killed, her cubs are left to starve.

If they're lucky, they will be taken in at Harnas.

It's a time-consuming task looking after leopards.

When they are bigger, they will be moved to an enclosure

protected by an electric fence.

Eric, he is so angry at you. Great.

Each leopard has its own pen.

If kept together, they might fight until death.

There's hope that in the future,

cattle farmers will not have to kill the animals

to protect their livestock.

WOMAN 1: Yeah. WOMAN 2: Yeah.

- Fine? - Okay.

Painstaking observation has shown

that leopards will only attack cattle younger than 3 months old.

If the cows are locked away during this critical age,

then leopards will probably seek out easier prey.

Namibia's Kunene Province in the northwest part of the country

is one of its wildest areas.

Here, riverbeds fill with water only after rare rainfalls.

This is desert elephant country.

Elephants have a well-developed sense of smell

and can detect underground water over great distances,

even in apparently dry river beds.

But during periods of extreme drought,

even these desert experts are at a loss and may need help from humans.

Water is extracted from great depths using a windmill.

In a drought, this precious commodity often leads to conflict

between all those that desperately need it.

Like herds of goats, often all that the people of Kunene own.

Thirsty elephants know no fear.

But humans are scared of these powerful creatures.

A wall of concrete is all that stops the elephants

from destroying everything.

Hendrick Munembone of EHRA, Elephant-Human Relations Aid,

examines the scene of a crime.

In the course of a battle over water, elephants have killed several cattle.

So what happened four days ago in the afternoon,

a group of elephants found these three lonely moving bulls

at the water point.

And because of that aggression that elephant now getting,

they start fighting the bulls

and, apparently, they knocked this bull down,

and afterwards, they saw the bull standing up,

tried to run away after they killed the one immediately at the water point.

EHRA works to help both human and elephant populations.

Hendrick coordinates with the local authorities

and records every incident.

They are walking around, and it looks like they are aggressive.

They want something that is inside our fence.

And I stand between my two beds, and I start to pray.

And I told my boy not to breathe.

I said to him, "Don't breathe, don't breathe

because the elephants are here next to our room."

First, they destroyed the water tank,

and, secondly,

this corrugated iron house

because we put our grass and our dairy feed in that house.

I was very, very, very afraid.

I was shivering and praying.

I said, "God, please don't give me over to the elephants, please."

New settlers need help,

and EHRA holds courses to teach them the basics of elephant behavior

and ways to keep elephants away from property.

So, through my trainings,

I learned the other way of using chilies to keep an elephant from touching

very much important asset of the family,

like when people having their food, even the meals, the pumpkins people eat.

Elephants can smell them, and they can try to touch it.

So that's why we train people to use chilies, which is cayenne peppers.

You cook them with an old engine oils,

and then you paint that specific room where you keep-- you store your food.

One of EHRA's most important tasks

is to help people and animals get through dry periods.

When the rains come, the elephants spread out.

And in some areas, there's less conflict.

EHRA is staffed in part by volunteers from all over the world.

They sign up for a one or two-week adventure

and provide valuable extra manpower and have some fun as well.

Their reward is evenings around a camp fire

and magical nights under the stars.

The Elephant-Human Relations Aid organization

has been collecting data on desert elephants for years.

Volunteers help count the animals and map out their movements.

In the Kunene region, the animals have more space to live.

But in areas with a larger human population,

other solutions must be found.

There's only one way to keep elephants away

from humans during a drought.

You have to build wells and artificial watering holes.

Khaudum National Park lies in the north of the Kalahari Desert.

The large numbers of elephants here, particularly during dry periods,

are due to the wells.

Around 3,000 elephants

share the half a dozen watering holes in Khaudum.

The park's water holes deliver benefits.

Elephants are kept away from human settlements.

And tourists are treated to an unforgettable sight.

In South Africa, rhinoceroses are bred in large numbers,

like these young white rhinos.

These-- These creatures...

Of course, large babies need large bottles.

Oh, my goodness!

- Can we touch them? - Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Oh, next bottle.

Ah.

While every year rhinos are born in breeding stations,

during the same period,

poachers slaughter more than a thousand.

A private wildlife reserve in Namibia decided to host four South African rhinos,

two bulls and two cows.

The ultimate aim is to create a breeding population.

The reserve didn't want young rhinos.

They wanted adults.

So first, the rhinos had to be captured

with the help of a helicopter and a warden with a tranquilizer gun.

The dart finds its target.

The animal needs to be subdued, not knocked unconscious.

Next, the rhino has to be persuaded into a truck.

The blindfold, like the tranquilizer, is to minimize stress for the animal.

The rhinos require the help of experienced veterinarians

if they are to survive the coming journey.

A 2,000-kilometer trip awaits,

and stress is the greatest risk during the entire operation.

Okutala is a conservation area near Namibia's Etosha National Park.

The rhinos coming in from South Africa cannot be released immediately.

First, they have to spend some time in an enclosure,

adapting to their new surroundings.

But moving them into their new home is easier said than done.

Using a complex system of doors,

staff try to keep two tons of bad-tempered rhino under control.

Several weeks later, things have calmed down,

and all the rhinos are living in a large enclosure.

The rhinos are now hand fed like domesticated animals,

but the wardens remain wary.

They have seen these animals destroy steel doors and gates.

Okutala, two years later.

The enclosure is abandoned.

At some point, the gray giants broke out

and made their way into the conservation area.

Where they now live is almost 24,000 hectares of wilderness,

surrounded by a fence.

The rhinos return to the lodge and its watering hole

and bring their babies.

It all started with four agitated white rhinos.

Now, they have formed an extended family.

And like any family, they have their ups and downs.

Elephants live in Okutala too.

The Swiss veterinarian Simone Herzog is responsible for the care of them.

Her most recent patient is a desert elephant.

The 1-year-old calf is a member of the herd

causing trouble for the farmers in the Kunene region.

It's not clear why he has left the other elephants.

The calf is not the first elephant at Okutala.

There are three older foster children.

They are in contact through the railings.

At the moment, the older animals are more interested in him

than he is in them,

but he is becoming more interested.

As soon as I think the time is right,

I will let the friendliest, most caring of the older elephants

into the enclosure first.

Then the others will get the chance to know him,

and eventually, all four of them will be in the enclosure together.

Initially, this will only be during the day

when I have the sense that they are aware

that he is smaller and needs to be cared for.

Simone knows how to care for such a young and weak elephant.

Nutrition is important.

Elephants can't process dairy milk,

so she makes up a cocktail of low-fat milk powder and vegetable oil.

Come in...

However,

not even hand-made milk, walks together, deworming, and vaccines are enough.

This baby elephant needs psychological nourishment too.

He needs someone who can replace

his mother, his aunts, and his siblings in the herd.

Little rain has fallen at Okutala in two years.

The country is a dried-out husk.

The rhinos require extra forage,

and truckloads of alfalfa are delivered daily.

So it's no surprise

that the animals turn up at the watering hole each day.

Equally unsurprising are the battles to show who's top rhino.

Sadly, the rhinos are no longer safe in Namibia.

Poaching has increased over the years,

and now, poachers target both black and white rhinos

in private and public lands.

White rhinoceros conservation is comparatively easy.

They can be kept in private conservation areas.

The aggressive black rhinos pose a far greater problem.

This juvenile black rhino has a real attitude

and lets everyone know it.

The arena is a watering hole in the Etosha National Park.

Today, poachers pose a far greater threat to this rhino than lions do.

In Namibia, there is one place with great hope.

This mountain wilderness is known as Damaraland,

after the local tribe of the same name.

Harsh mountains and rivers of sand are home for the toughest of the tough.

Wild animals here enjoy the protection of the local people.

They run their own sanctuaries, known as communal conservancies.

The area is home to more black rhinos than anywhere else in Africa.

But finding one is seriously challenging

since the region spans more than 20,000 square kilometers.

Because of the aridity,

this is on literally the edge of their habitat

when it comes to rainfall.

So these rhinos are tough, and when you see them out in the field,

even out in this barren landscape with not a single...

or vegetation that looks pretty parched, you know,

they do pretty well, all things considered.

And one of their favorite food species here is this...

this sort of funny-looking euphorbia species

that is-- almost sort of looks like a Chia Pet.

It's very-- It's got a toxic latex inside of it,

but rhinos here have developed a chemical

that's able to absorb and digest this toxin,

so they eat it without much of a problem at all.

Jeff Muntifering and local trackers

work for the Save the Rhino Trust.

SRT plays a significant role in black rhino protection.

In the course of long walks,

every rhino is tracked down, and each sighting is recorded.

When an animal reaches 3 years old,

its horn is removed so poachers are not attracted to the area.

The trackers come from the local communities.

They are accompanied by armed police officers.

A firefight with poachers could break out at any time.

Rhino horn is worth more than gold,

making poaching a lucrative business even when only a stump remains.

The patrol camps are well-hidden

and spread across the entire conservation area.

Hi, guys.

Simson Uri-Khob, CEO of the Save the Rhino Trust,

is responsible for overseeing the training of the rangers.

However, one of his most important tasks

is working closely with the local communities.

Simson believes that this, above all else, is the secret of the project's success.

Communities are actually the most important partners

in rhino protection in our region.

So the conservancy was formed, and they signed the agreements that say

you take all the responsibility for the wildlife that's in your area.

Rhinos belong to the government,

and the government will have a say on the rhinos,

but the rest is under yours.

With more and more people wanting to see the famous rhinos,

communities are benefiting from tourism.

The rhinos mean jobs and income from entrance fees.

Despite the best efforts of the Save the Rhino Trust,

poaching has become an issue in Damaraland.

Well, it certainly escalated the poaching threat,

and we knew it was coming.

But we're pretty satisfied that, you know,

we've managed to keep things under control.

We've lost kind of, on average, about six or seven rhinos a year

in this area for the past three years, which for us is tolerable.

I mean, there is the Grootberg conservancy

making about a million Namibian dollars

out of rhino tracking tourism, just rhino tracking activity.

So it shows that rhinos can benefit people quite a lot

although they can't sell them or they can't hunt them

for money or for meat and stuff like that.

But a rhino-- a live rhino is more worth than a dead rhino.

Conservancies are proving to be a win-win endeavor.

With poaching, ever-expanding farming, and urban sprawl,

Namibia's wild animals face many challenges.

But Namibia has demonstrated admirable foresight

with the introduction of community conservancies.

They, and the many private conservation initiatives,

provide a glimmer of hope.

For now,

Namibia remains the Sanctuary of Giants.