An Elephant's Tale Planet Earth Live

This is Maya. She's just a few hours old.

The newest arrival in Samburu National Park in Northern Kenya.

Maya's mum, Zadie, is a first-time parent.

She must learn quickly,

and guide Maya through the first vulnerable weeks of her life.

Planet Earth Live have sent a crew to follow them

through the good times and the bad.

Right now, Maya and Zadie are separated from their herd.

And surrounded by danger -

hungry predators and the guns of poachers.

Maya and Zadie must find the herd.

The family can help protect Maya

and teach her how to be an elephant.

Maya faces many challenges.

Her greatest is to cross the flooded river that runs through her home.

If she and her family get this wrong, it will be a disaster.

This is Maya's story.

Maya is just moments old.

She's frail, helpless

and totally dependent on young first-time mum Zadie.

This will be the hardest month of Maya's life.

Aside from feeding, she has two crucial needs -

to be protected from danger and to learn about the world around her.

A big, stable family can provide Maya with both.

It can literally make the difference between life and death.

But Maya and Zadie are alone.

When Zadie went into labour, her family left her behind.

They had to keep moving to feed.

The family are only a mile away,

but to Zadie and Maya, it might as well be a million miles.

They should be here, teaching Zadie how to be a mum.

What Maya really needs is her first feed.

Like humans, an elephant's first milk is packed with vital nutrients.

It also kick-starts the baby's immune system.

Maya desperately needs to feed, simply to keep going.

She's hungry, exhausted, vulnerable to the slightest infection,

and at the point of collapse.

But instead of feeding Maya, Zadie keeps searching for the family.

If she doesn't start to look after Maya properly,

the youngster will soon be in serious trouble.

Zadie has got one thing right.

She came here - to Samburu.

It's May, and it's the rainy season.

The grass is high and plentiful.

There's more than enough food for everyone.

Thousands of elephants flood into the reserve

to make the most of the feast.

Pregnant females time giving birth to coincide with this bounty.

For elephants, May brings something of a baby boom.

But 20% of these babies will not live to see their first birthday.

This is a dangerous world.

Rain turns the river into a torrent and it's full of crocodiles.

Temperatures can reach over 40 degrees Celsius.

Maya's safe - so far.

But it looks like the family have already lost a calf.

Zadie's cousin Emily gave birth just last week.

Now her calf is missing.

David Daballen from the charity Save The Elephants

is worried for the calf's safety.

We're looking for a young baby

and we've found the rest of the group

but, you know, no sign of the baby,

so I'm a little concerned about that.

Emily is here, but not her calf.

David fears the worst.

I suspect it could be lions.

We have two massive males in this pack

who are very, very specialised in killing young baby elephants

and, you know, we have seen their tracks around this area.

Save The Elephants have been working here for nearly 20 years.

David knows the park well.

He heads straight for the area where Emily and her calf were last seen.

There's no sign of a calf.

Just a pride of very full lions.

Most lions are reluctant to attack elephants,

but here in Samburu, some prides have specialised.

A baby elephant can weigh nearly as much as a lion.

A single kill can feed the whole pride.

Fearing the worst, David searches the area.

He finds the one thing he really doesn't want to.

The remains of Emily's calf.

It's part of nature for elephants to lose a baby,

but this will be quite emotional for poor Emily to lose her first calf,

which was only a few days old.

Elephants have very complex emotions.

They respond to death just like us.

For Emily, she'll be mourning for the calf she just lost.

Despite Emily's loss, little Maya and her mum Zadie

will still be safer with the herd than they are out here alone.

Maya is just hours old...

a tempting target for lions.

And Zadie still hasn't given Maya her first essential feed.

Dehydration is a very real threat to her tiny new life.

What Maya desperately needs is food and a chance to cool down.

Elephants use water holes to cool off in the heat of the day.

As fun as this looks, there's a serious side to it.

Samburu is close to the equator.

The sun's rays can be lethal.

Elephant skin can be nearly four centimetres thick in places.

But it still needs protecting.

And mud is a very effective natural sunscreen.

Working out how to walk on it can take some time.

A waterhole is exactly what Maya and Zadie need.

The day is getting hotter.

Thankfully, in the rainy season, there's almost always water nearby.

Suddenly Zadie seems to turn a corner.

She uses the water to cool them both off.

Maya comes to life.

This time when Maya searches for milk,

Zadie gives her time to find the teat.

At last Maya gets that first essential feed.

This is the lifeline she needed.

With her belly full, she finally has the energy

to continue their search for the family.

Elephants use low-frequency sound to communicate.

The sound can travel for miles.

Zadie homes in on the herd.

It's a joyous reunion.

Maya finally gets to meet the herd.

And they're all very excited to meet HER.

These elephants will be Maya's security.

They'll protect her and teach her.

They all want to say hi and welcome her to the family.

These relationships will last for life.

Now that Maya and Zadie are back with the herd,

Zadie doesn't have to cope on her own any more.

Now, it's time for her first lesson in family politics.

An older female from the herd, Annie, comes over for a look.

Zadie crouches back,

a gesture of respect.

In response, Annie holds her ears out.

A greeting to mum and her baby.

She sniffs and gently inspects Maya.

It's how elephants get acquainted.

And it seems that Maya's taken a shine to her.

When Annie moves on, Maya follows.

Until Annie gently sets her straight.

Maya still has a lot to learn about family life.

At least for now, she's safe.

But life as an elephant is never easy.

The family all look out for each other,

but some dangers are beyond their control.

Samburu is a small reserve.

The animals here are protected.

But elephants are constantly on the move.

And ivory poaching is at its highest level for decades.

The areas between protected reserves are treacherous.

The poachers are ruthless.

The wardens trying to protect the elephants need to be heavily armed.

Maya's family's range takes them well outside

the safety of the reserve.

As a result, they're a small and depleted herd.

THUNDER RUMBLES

The oldest, wisest elephants have the most ivory.

That makes them both prime targets for poachers

and the animals the herd can least afford to lose.

The herd relies on the collected wisdom of its elders to survive.

When the elephants in Maya's herd were killed,

their vast knowledge died with them.

Around 70 elephant families use Samburu.

None of them are entirely safe.

In a herd three miles to the east,

Matriarch Sylvia still bears

a life threatening injury from a poacher's gun.

She has a week-old calf, Little Pinkfoot,

who leads a carefree, well-protected life,

with Sylvia as head of the family.

But both their lives are in danger.

The poacher's bullet left a serious wound that never completely healed.

Sylvia has a huge abscess on the side of her face.

If the infection spreads, the blood poisoning could kill her.

Sylvia was heavily pregnant with Little Pinkfoot when she was shot.

Elephants have the longest pregnancy of any mammal, 22 months.

For all of that time, they're vulnerable and exposed.

Incredibly, Little Pinkfoot was born fit and healthy.

She even has the support of a big sister.

But if Sylvia dies, Little Pinkfoot will almost certainly starve.

The only answer is intervention.

David decides that Sylvia needs treatment.

The risks are immense for everyone involved.

Only recently,

David's friend was crushed and killed during a similar operation.

First, Sylvia must be tranquilised.

It can take up to ten minutes for the drug to take effect.

The dart falls out,

but it's already delivered its payload of tranquiliser.

Thankfully, Little Pinkfoot's sister is at hand.

But this could still go badly wrong.

Sylvia or her family could charge, and force the team to withdraw.

Sylvia could fall awkwardly.

Her huge bulk could restrict her ability to breathe.

She could suffocate.

Worse still, she could fall on Little Pinkfoot, and crush her.

At first things are looking good.

But then Sylvia puts out a distress call.

SYLVIA TRUMPETS

Little Pinkfoot responds.

She runs back to Sylvia

and stands right underneath her three-tonne bulk.

For her, being right under mum is the safest place in the world.

David and the team try to flush Little Pinkfoot out with vehicles,

but she just won't budge.

Eventually, David does the unthinkable.

He risks his own life to save Little Pinkfoot's.

If Sylvia goes down now, she could easily crush them both.

But even Little Pinkfoot weighs 100 kilos.

Moving her takes force.

The rest of the herd are wild with distress.

They could charge at any moment.

Little Pinkfoot panics.

The team have got to get her back to her sister's side.

Thankfully, baby elephants instinctively follow large objects.

So David uses his vehicle to lead her towards her family.

Once she's safe, the team can start their work.

The abscess is huge.

It will need to be drained and cleaned thoroughly.

The team work as fast as they can to reduce the stress to Sylvia

and the rest of the herd.

A vet from the Kenyan Wildlife Service

gives her a massive dose of antibiotics.

Thousands of elephants get shot every year.

Most die slowly and painfully.

Finally, the vet gives Sylvia an antidote

to the tranquiliser to bring her round.

But searching for her family, she heads off

in the wrong direction.

This time David uses his car to coax Sylvia towards Little Pinkfoot.

Eventually the family is reunited.

It's a moment of joy.

The flared ears and the body language say it all.

Without this emergency procedure,

both Sylvia and Little Pinkfoot could easily have died.

This herd is safe, for now.

Three miles west, Maya's doing well, too.

She's a week old now.

Protected by a forest of tree trunk-like legs.

For such huge and powerful animals, elephants are astonishingly gentle.

Tenderly, they lift her to her feet to feed.

This is family life.

Safe, secure and strong.

But there are still challenges ahead.

The Ewaso Ngiro river is the life-blood of the reserve.

The river will play a massive role in Maya's life.

She'll make this trip almost daily.

As an adult, she'll need to drink up to 150 litres of water a day.

Large males can drink up to 200 litres in under five minutes.

For now, Maya just can't quite work out what she's supposed to do.

But she'll be drinking milk from her mum for the next two years,

so there's no rush to learn.

Zadie and the family

are cautious with Maya at the river.

She's taking her baby steps in a big and dangerous world.

The river can flash flood,

turning into a death trap in a matter of moments.

The water is thick with mud and silt.

Ewaso Ngiro means "Dark Water" in the Samburu language.

It's also cover to hundreds of Nile crocodiles.

These crocs are huge.

They can take down fully-grown giraffes.

A baby elephant would be easy.

The elephants have to cross the river all year round.

There's not enough food on one side alone to keep them going.

But crossing takes skill, strength, and experience.

Maya's family choose to stay put.

Downstream, another herd have decided to take the plunge.

They test the water, waiting to go.

Euphrates, a wise old matriarch, leads her family out into the river.

She knows that to reach the other side safely,

they have to head slightly upstream, into the current.

Watching from the shallows is a young group with no matriarch.

Three first-time mums, each with a calf about Maya's age.

Euphrates and her family safely reach the other side.

The inexperienced young mums watch,

then they decide to go for it.

Quickly, they're in too deep to get back.

This is really, really bad.

This is the problem of not having any proper leadership in their families.

If they become separated, they could easily drown.

Oh, my God! One is gone!

The mothers try in vain, but they can't contain all three.

As they save one, another washes away.

Oh, God! They're still going and the baby's gone.

Soon, all three are being swept downstream fast,

through the crocodile-infested waters.

The current's even too much for the mothers.

They have to let their babies go.

David can't see how they can possibly survive.

-Oh, man, this is no good.

-Let's go.

-Let's go.

You can hear the poor females.

OK, Apo. No, no, no. Right, right.

All the big females are running.

Oh, God.

OK, one baby's out.

Man, the other one is here, the other one is here.

Wow!

There are two babies actually here. Wow, they're really tough.

Come on, big females, come in!

Oh, please don't move.

Oh, they're coming down. The females are coming down.

I hope they will save them because they will get tired

and if a croc grabs them, that's it.

The poor mothers just don't know what to do.

They have no way of lifting them out.

And David can't even help.

Oh, come on, females, get in and save the babies!

The riverbank is sheer

and the babies are weak and terrified.

Oh, man! That is so relieving.

It's so joyful to see all of them again, coming back together.

I can't really remember having such a tense time

in my life with all, you know,

the experiences I have.

I'm so glad they all made it, anyway.

Oh, poor things.

They are really crying.

They've just had a nightmare.

Maya's moment to cross the river will come.

But she's still just two weeks old.

For now, Zadie and the rest of the family

are keeping her safe and well.

Maya has a lot to learn.

Her day starts at sunrise.

Elephants can travel long distances,

but this is the rainy season.

There's enough food in Samburu.

Maya and her family don't have to go far.

Maya learns the tastes and textures of the world around her.

She's still drinking up to 11 litres of her mum's milk every day.

This is just a chance to experiment.

She's beginning to work out what she should and shouldn't eat.

Adult elephants have the largest brain of all land animals.

Maya's brain is just a third of its adult size.

It's still growing, and forging new connections.

This is an essential time for learning and emotional development.

And to learn, you have to explore.

There are already a couple of other babies in the family

to team up with.

It's a good way to learn co-ordination and balance.

It's a great way of building social bonds, too.

Building good relationships is a vital skill.

Every elephant's survival depends on the strength of the herd.

Look out for your family,

and they'll look out for you.

A bit further north live two tiny tearaways...

..Sky and Grace.

Their family is large and stable.

A big family means there are lots of eyes to keep watch

while they grow up at their own pace.

They're about six weeks old

and there are lots of exciting things to discover.

Not least, what to do with that thing

in the middle of their face.

At this stage, their trunk is more like a mischievous friend

than a finely-tuned tool.

That's no surprise when you realise

it contains 100,000 muscles and tendons!

Practice is essential, especially if you want to be just like mum.

As adults, they'll use their trunks for all sorts of different tasks.

For now, learning even the basics takes time.

Further south, Maya has a different lesson to learn.

The nuts of the Doum palm are delicious.

But the trees can grow to 20m tall - well out of reach.

That's where a bit of family know-how comes in,

like teaming up with your baboon neighbours to get what you want.

The nuts are very tough,

and although the baboons can reach them,

they can't get through their thick husk.

Once they've eaten what they can, the rest ends up on the floor.

Zadie and the other adults pick up the baboons' cast-offs.

Their powerful jaws and huge teeth crush the nuts,

exposing their soft and nutritious centres.

But elephants are very messy eaters,

which means the baboons can finish off what's left.

Zadie's cautious of the big males getting too close to baby Maya.

But it's the rainy season. There's enough food for everyone,

so things remain calm.

May, in the Samburu reserve, is the time for a special annual event.

All of the elephant families come together at the river.

It's a spectacular gathering.

It's Maya's first chance to learn a whole new dimension

in elephant society.

This will become a yearly pilgrimage for her.

It'll play a very important role in her social life.

As the elephants gather,

youngsters trumpet and call,

beckoning yet more families down to the river.

The kids get together and learn how to socialise.

Young males test their strength with a bit of gentle sparring.

While others are just excited to be reunited with old friends.

It's a time to relax, play, and make the most of the leisure time

that comes with a season of plenty.

Tight family structure and social bonds are everything.

Elephants always look out for each other.

Observations first made here in Samburu

take our understanding of elephant relationships

to a whole new level -

revealing they'll even adopt the orphans of other herds.

Grace's mum was part of a family that was almost totally wiped out.

When her mother died, she was left alone.

Luckily a big, stable family took her in.

She's with them to this day.

Even bereaved youngsters get a second chance at a happy family.

Her adoption highlights the immense importance

of social bonds to elephants.

Back at the beach, the big bulls have turned up

and there's only one thing on their mind -

girls.

They travel long distances to be here in May.

They're searching for mates.

Maya would have been conceived right here, almost two years ago,

but today, she needs to keep well out of the way.

These guys mean business.

The bulls weigh up to six tonnes and stand four metres tall,

well over twice the size of a female.

But receptive females can attract more than one suitor.

The males crowd each other to stay as close as possible.

Once she's chosen, the couple start their courtship.

Mating causes a real ripple of excitement through the herd.

This is the end of the males' responsibilities.

For the females, it's just the beginning.

Every day, little Maya is growing more adventurous,

moving away from mum to explore.

Zadie is starting to let the family watch over Maya much more.

It's good for both of them.

It gives Zadie a chance to feed and keep her strength up,

while Maya gets the full protection of the herd.

They even let her suckle for comfort.

And the more Zadie feeds, the richer the milk she produces.

Maya is getting stronger by the day.

It's the end of May.

Maya has cleared all the hurdles of her first month.

Now it's time for the biggest challenge of her young life.

She must brave the hungry crocodiles

and biting currents of the river.

Most of the herd have already crossed.

Maya and Zadie have to follow.

But will Zadie make the right decisions?

Get this wrong and she could lose Maya for ever.

Maya struggles to keep her footing,

as Zadie strides out into the surging river.

In the middle, the current is strong.

But Zadie uses her body to shield Maya.

She's made the right choice

and picked a spot where the river is wide, but shallow.

Her first successful river crossing.

With the help of her exceptional family,

Maya has made it through the toughest month of her life.

Zadie has proven to be a surprisingly good mother.

And Maya a survivor.

But for Maya, there's a challenging year ahead.

She'll have to stay on the move through the harsh dry season,

searching for food and water -

a search that could easily lead her outside the reserve.

But if the family can keep her safe, perhaps one day,

like Zadie, Maya too will become an exceptional mother.

She may even become the matriarch of the family,

using her knowledge to guide the herd

through an uncertain future.

But that's a long way off.

For now, she can rest assured that she's the tiny half

of an amazing team.

Since filming finished,

Zadie and Maya have been spotted safe and healthy.

They're inside the reserve, away from the danger of poachers.

Zadie and her family

continue to give Maya the care and support she needs.

Somewhere out in Samburu, Maya's story continues.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd