Episode 2 Elephant Diaries

For a whole year, I've been following a remarkable family of baby elephants in Kenya.

ELEPHANTS TRUMPET

A family of elephants raised by people.

Every one of these little elephants is an orphan, rescued from the wild having lost their mother.

They've all been brought to a unique nursery in Nairobi,

where they receive the intense love and care that they desperately need.

All of these babies have been saved from certain death in the wild

by the vision of one woman, Daphne Sheldrick.

Together with her team of dedicated keepers, she's giving orphaned baby

elephants a second chance of a normal life back in the wild, where they belong.

By the time they're two years old, the young babies are ready to leave

the security of the nursery and are brought here.

This is Tsavo National Park, and we're about 350km east

of where Michaela is at the Nairobi orphanage.

I'm following the progress of the older orphans as they learn what it takes to return to the wild.

Yesterday on Elephant Diaries -

a starving baby elephant was rescued after she lost her mother and was rejected by other elephants.

She was rushed to the Nairobi nursery.

Exhausted and traumatised, no-one knew if the baby would survive her first 24 hours in care.

Against the odds, the new baby, now called Naserian, has made it through the night.

It's a promising start, but she's not out of danger yet.

Right now, she's struggling to come to terms with her strange new home,

and she's woken up feeling scared and confused.

She doesn't realise the keepers are here to help her, so the first step

is to introduce her to the other nursery babies, led by their two-year-old mini-matriarch, Wendi.

It's hoped that seeing them will reassure her.

Like human children, these curious babies are eager to investigate any newcomer.

They all understand how she's feeling.

They know what it's like to be orphaned and all alone.

They seem keen to get to know her, so Naserian is allowed to tag along as the herd heads out.

Head keeper Edwin is relieved to see her strength returning,

but, understandably, Naserian is extremely wary of him.

He helped rescue her, and no doubt his scent will remind her of that terrifying night.

I'm not sure if she will remember that I was with her yesterday.

They don't know your reaction when rescuing them.

They think maybe you want to kill them or do something bad to them, so they don't respond to you very well.

At moments like this, it might seem easier for Edwin to just back off.

Naserian, Naserian, Naserian, Naserian, come, come, come, come.

But the nursery is her only chance for survival.

If she's going to make it, she has to overcome her fears.

Eventually, the elephants come to understand that we're here to help them.

They learn to become our friends and they gain all the trust from us, the keepers.

But for now, Naserian is still an anxious little ele.

And when other babies try to make friends, she just doesn't know how to react.

Even the offer of milk later in the day doesn't win her over.

Naserian will spend at least a year here at the nursery,

and during that time the keepers will become her surrogate mothers, if she'll let them.

If she does, her next step will be to join a herd of older orphans

-making their own way back into the wild.

-Come, come, come.

Jonathan has been getting to know the elephants that are making that transition.

This is Tsavo. This is where the babies from the nursery

are brought when they're old enough to begin the second stage of their journey back into the wild.

The 30 orphans in this herd are slowly learning the ropes.

And, just like a wild herd, they're led by their very own matriarch.

Ten-year-old Emily lost her mother after falling into a cesspit as a baby.

Imagine what a traumatic experience that must have been.

Now, like any adolescent teenager ready to leave home,

she's old enough to strike out and start a family of her own.

But, for the moment at least, she's staying with the orphan herd

and helping teach them what it takes to live as wild elephants.

This early morning light is absolutely glorious,

and I think that sort of red Tsavo elephant

against these huge rocky outcrops, to me, is just perfect Africa.

It is quite extraordinary to be among a group of elephants as they go about their daily business, just feeding.

All the munching, the chewing, the snapping off of branches.

And even though elephants eat an awful lot of grass, when it's dry they'll tend to select-browse.

So they'll strip off leaves, they'll strip off bark from the branches.

Now, just check the way Emily's using her trunk.

I mean, she's literally picking

one seed pod off after another, and it's so delicate.

And, of course, in the wild,

baby elephants learn from the mother, from the adult.

They'll put their trunk into the mouth of the adult to test

what they're eating and see what it is, and that's how they learn.

And so, too, these youngsters as well, that are with Emily - they know this is a good thing.

Seeing how much the younger orphans learn from Emily,

I can't help wondering what would happen if she does decide to leave.

She seems so vital to this group.

How on Earth would her adopted family cope without her?

It's been a few weeks since I last saw the baby orphans

in the Nairobi nursery,

and I'm keen to find out how Naserian is getting on.

It's feeding time for the baby elephants.

In the wild, they'd be able to feed from their mothers whenever they wanted.

Here it's more controlled, and the keepers have to do the job of mother.

Now, up until six months old they'd be totally milk-dependent, but from then on they start to graze.

Little Naserian is one of the orphans that is still mostly

milk-dependent, and the good news is that she's learning to trust Edwin and the rest of her keepers.

Better still, Edwin tells me she's becoming friends with Wendi and the other orphans here at the nursery.

Although when milk's around, it's every little ele from themselves.

No!

Away! Away! Away from here!

This little milk thief is a bull called Napasha,

and at just over two years old, he's the oldest baby in the nursery.

He's very easy to recognise, because he's the only orphan here with very obvious tusks.

And he's nearly always eating!

Napasha is also the only orphan that has ever learnt to give himself the bottle.

Napasha had nearly starved to death before he was rescued,

so you can't really blame him for trying to get a little extra.

Naserian's arrival means there are now ten little elephants in the baby herd.

With Wendi as their mini-matriarch, and surrounded by caring keepers,

life for the babies is as safe and secure as it can be.

But that's about to change, because Wendi, along with five other elephants, is ready to leave

the nursery and some of the young ones behind to take the next steps to go back into the wild.

They're all about two years old and it's time for them to head to Tsavo.

Moving baby elephants out of the nursery is never easy,

but Edwin and the keepers are particularly worried this time.

Normally, the two-year-olds from Nairobi

are taken to join Emily's herd, but this move is going to be different.

Wendi, Napasha and the four older babies that are leaving

are going to form the nucleus of a new herd at a new release site.

They're heading to a remote corner of Tsavo, 100 miles away from Emily's herd.

It's an area of wilderness that has been home to thousands of wild elephants.

Most have left, scared off by decades of poaching.

Now it's safe again, and the hope is that by establishing

a new orphan herd here, it will help draw wild herds back again.

But Wendi has never really known life outside the nursery,

so Edwin's concerned about whether she's going to cope and how the little ones will cope without her.

For most of the orphans already in Tsavo, their time at the Nairobi nursery is just a memory.

For Emily and her herd of growing youngsters, Tsavo is now their home.

This is ideal elephant country, and as well as our orphans,

it's home to Kenya's largest population of wild elephants.

It's the beginning of the dry season, and natural water holes play a vital role in the orphans' daily routine.

It's a chance for our eles to quench their thirst and cool down in the heat of the day.

It's almost as if Emily knows that a good rub-down helps brush off ticks and other parasites.

And by copying her, the youngsters learn yet another life lesson.

But you've always got to be alert out here.

These water holes are a magnet to any wild elephants in the neighbourhood.

This could be really exciting, because Emily and the Tsavo herd

are just here and through the trees there is a wild herd.

The keepers think that Emily might know this herd, but what's she going to do?

See how the two families are facing off?

The wild herd obviously want to use the orphans' wallow, but they're really not sure about each other.

Look, Emily and the orphans are all trunks up,

trying to catch the scent of the newcomers and work out who they are.

Most of the young orphans are moving away. They seem unsure how to handle the situation.

But some of the more adventurous ones are going over to investigate the wild elephants.

And see here, these two little bulls are sizing one another up.

It looks as if the orphans are actually trying to see the others off.

And check out Emily. She's standing her ground against a young wild bull.

Now, that just shows how confident she is.

You know, this encounter is exactly what you might see between two wild herds,

and it proves that our orphans are learning the etiquette of elephant society.

This is what they have to do if they're ever going to be successful in the wild.

And look, there's another bull coming towards Emily, and this one's much, much bigger.

Emily's not happy. You can tell she's intimidated by him.

She's backing off.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

OK, so they've had to give up their water hole, but at least

Emily and her herd are safe, and they've learned a valuable lesson.

Just one of many, I reckon.

It's the end of the day here at the Nairobi nursery, and

the final countdown to moving Wendi and the five older babies has begun.

In preparation for the move tomorrow, Edwin and the keepers are about to split the baby herd

into two groups - the six older orphans that are being moved and the babies that will be left behind.

Seeing the elephants together like this and knowing that tomorrow

is the day that they're going to be split up in many ways is very sad.

These elephant have become such a closely-knitted family.

I think it's going to be particularly difficult for the young ones.

They've come to rely on the older ones for protection and guidance.

How are they going to feel tomorrow when they wake up and their old friends have gone?

Little Ndomot here is one of the elephants that's going to stay behind, and the keepers

are particularly worried about both him and Naserian - Naserian because she's so young,

she's only just arrived here and only just made new friends -

and Ndomot because he's so close to Wendi.

Well, this is it. It's time for the group to be split

into two, the ones that are staying and the ones that are going.

And it will be at least another year before they meet again,

before the younger ones are ready to join the older ones in Tsavo.

It's such a shame that you can't tell them what's going on.

At least then they'd be able to say their goodbyes.

Naserian and the three smallest babies are led away first.

Once they're out of sight, Wendi, Napasha and the older elephants follow at a distance.

But instead of going straight to bed, the older ones are taken to visit the trucks that will carry

them away from their friends and transport them to a new life.

Edwin and the keepers want them to get used to the trucks before the move.

But one little baby is refusing to go in.

Well, this is the last rehearsal to get the elephants into the back of the trucks.

They've all done it quite calmly so far except for Taita, at a year old, old enough

to remember he fell through a manhole and into a septic tank.

The tank was full, which meant that he had to tread water just to survive.

Maybe the dark confines of the truck bring back terrible memories of being trapped in that tank

and that's why he's so frightened of going inside.

Edwin, Taita's still not going in and this is the last opportunity to get him in.

What will you do tomorrow?

Well, we are going to sort of convince him tomorrow and hope he will accept.

-But how will you convince him?

-We will use all possible means, but I'm sure he will.

One elephant they don't need to coax is Napasha.

If there's milk on offer, then he's a complete pushover.

But despite the temptations, frightened little Taita is still resisting. Poor little thing.

-He just doesn't want to go in.

-Mind your backs, mind your backs.

And if Taita doesn't want his milk, then there's always one hungry little elephant that does.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS ANGRILY

But how will Taita react tomorrow, when they do it for real?

Here in Tsavo it's getting late, and Emily's herd are making their way back to their sleeping quarters.

But they've been joined by a very special visitor.

Dika is a magnificent 16-year-old bull, and definitely a Tsavo success story.

He witnessed his family being gunned down by poachers when he was just

three months old and was then rescued.

Now he's living as a wild elephant.

Dika and Emily go way back. They were both orphans together as youngsters.

Although he returns every now and then to check on his old friends,

his relationship with Emily is moving onto a different footing.

Over the past few months, the keepers have seen Dika trying to mount Emily.

But this time she seems to be keeping her distance.

He's incredibly calm and gentle.

The younger orphans are all keen to greet him.

You can almost feel the respect, as if they're in awe of him.

Just like the little ones in Nairobi, the smallest elephants here still get a drink of milk before bed.

The only problem is that the keepers need to separate them

from the older orphans before they get back to the stockades.

That's Sosian. That's fat boy.

He just loves to eat and he was thinking, "I can just slip

"through there with the others", but no way, the keepers are not going to let him do that.

But just see the control that the keepers have with the elephants,

and see the trust that there is between them.

These are huge creatures, and yet the keepers with

one point with their finger can stop that elephant dead in its tracks, and I just don't know how they do it.

ELEPHANT GROWLS Whoa.

I haven't quite got the technique yet.

That's why I need a keeper with me.

Hello! Hello!

As Emily's herd makes its way home for the night,

Dika keeps them company

and heads straight to the water hole in front of the stables.

With the natural water holes out in the park drying up, perhaps this is another reason for his visit.

Emily plays it cool and ignores him as she makes her way into the security of her night stockade.

And Dika? Well, he heads back to the bush, totally confident in his wild home.

He's a perfect example of how successful the rehabilitation process can be.

With friends like Dika, Emily might just take that final step back into the wild.

In Nairobi, the final preparations are being made for tomorrow morning's move.

And it's bedtime for the nursery babies.

For the very young elephants, this is the last feed of the day

before they're put into their stables for the night.

Their keepers actually sleep with them and continue to feed them every four hours.

Here in Nairobi, it can get pretty cold at night.

Now, in the wild, these elephants would have the warmth

of their herd to snuggle up to, but here in the orphanage, they get a blanket.

For Naserian and Wendi, tonight's the last time that's they'll sleep in stables next to one another.

Although they met only a few weeks ago, they've become close friends,

and it's almost as if they sense that it's time to say goodbye.

Edwin knows that tonight Wendi needs extra love and reassurance.

She looks quite sad, doesn't she?

She really does.

-She knows something is going to happen.

-Yes.

All that has been happening, all the preparations.

You're gonna miss your babies, aren't you?

Not just a big day for the elephants, it's a big day for you as well.

You're gonna have to say goodbye. How you feeling?

Well, somehow sad, but I wish them well, because

they have done well here and I'd love them to go and succeed in the wild.

-It's an emotional time, though, isn't it?

-Very.

Daphne, the founder of this project, is also feeling the emotion of the moment.

She's spent 50 years seeing orphans go back to the wild.

But that doesn't make it any easier to say farewell

to six little babies that she's helped nurture back to life.

She knows the move is for the best, but it's still hard to say goodbye.

It's a big wide world out there, and a dangerous one.

And they become like your children.

You know, we get very emotional about it.

But of course it's just au revoir, we'll be keeping in touch with them.

But we always shed a few tears saying goodbye,

particularly to the little ones that we've had since day one, like Wendi, who's very special.

As the baby elephants settle down for the night,

everyone's feeling apprehensive about tomorrow's big move.

It's 5.30 in the morning, and today is the big day.

It's the day that Wendi and the elephants are going to be moved.

This is the last time they'll ever be at the nursery.

Now, there's a lot of activity going on, so no doubt the elephants have sensed that something is happening.

Let's just hope it goes smoothly, and fingers crossed that Taita will go into the back of the truck.

The keepers are loading the elephants two by two.

Wendi is one of the first to go in.

She's very quiet, almost as if she's resigned herself to what's happening.

Next it's Napasha,

as always eagerly chasing his bottle of milk into the truck.

Last it's Taita's turn, so it's all hands on deck.

Edwin and the keepers gently convince him to go in.

It's all gone far more smoothly than anyone had dared to hope.

With six elephants safely on board and over 200 hot and dusty miles

between us and the new release site, it's time to hit the road.

Daphne and her family bid a last fond farewell to the babies as we head off.

With keepers in the back of the trucks to keep the little eles calm,

we take to the busy main road out of Nairobi heading to Tsavo.

-ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

-You can hear them. You can actually hear the elephants in the back.

But it's soon clear that we have a big problem.

CRASHING

I need help, get in! The elephants are charging!

They're killing him, the elephants.

We've had to stop the truck, because we heard the keeper inside shouting.

That's because the elephants in the back of this truck are getting so agitated that

they've begun to charge, and that's putting the keeper's life in danger.

SHOUTING

That doesn't look like Taita, that looks like... That's Napasha. Oh, my goodness, this is just awful.

Tomorrow on Elephant Diaries, how will our babies react to the loss of their playmates?

In Tsavo, it's all change for Emily's herd.

And with 200 miles still to go, will everyone survive the journey to the new release site?

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