Elephant in the Bedroom This Wild Life

In the heart of Africa,

a young family is heading for an epic adventure.

They're moving with their three children to a remote

Kenyan wilderness.

Mum Saba is here to run a safari camp.

Welcome.

While dad Frank is helping to protect elephants.

Collar's almost on, now the scary bit.

But raising a family and running a business in the bush

is going to be a massive challenge.

There are monkeys in the kitchen...

Oh, you monkeys. I'm going to kill you!

..floods threatening the camp...

It's looking like it's going to be a mega storm.

..medical emergencies...

It's bad and it needs urgent action.

..and wildlife in need of help.

My heart really is in my mouth.

It's going to be a huge gamble.

Will the business survive Saba's first season in charge?

Oh, my God.

In this programme, things get off to a rocky start

when guests arrive early.

This is the apple supply for the whole week, four apples.

What am I going to do with four apples?

And an elephant emergency pushes everyone to their limits.

Has the family got what it takes to survive their new Wild Life?

It's early morning at the safari camp,

and the family's getting a wake-up call with a difference.

How am I expected to go to sleep

with an elephant a metre away from my head?

This is a six-tonne bull elephant.

He's been drawn into camp looking for food.

Five-year-old Selkie and the two-year-old twins, Mayian and Luna,

have a lot to learn about elephants.

Shhh!

If this big male gets angry, it could become a risky situation.

He can't come in, darling.

For Frank, this kind of wake-up call is still a novelty.

It doesn't half give you a shock when you wake up and I'm lying here

and I look up and there's a tusk in my face.

Her family may have some adjusting to do,

but for Saba, living this close to wildlife is second nature.

She grew up in Kenya,

learning about the bush with her father, an elephant scientist.

The whole family has a passion for elephants.

They've dedicated their lives to protecting them.

This is becoming ridiculous.

No-one can leave the bedroom until the elephant goes,

but Saba has a job to do.

As excuses go for not being able to go to work in the morning,

this is a pretty good one.

The camp opens for business in just one week.

There's a huge amount to do to get it ready in time.

Thankfully, the elephant is moving on and Saba can get to work.

The camp was set up by her mother 13 years ago.

Now, she's taking it over for the first time.

I've never run a business before, so this is going to be hugely

challenging and also a little bit scary.

The camp takes 12 guests in six bespoke tents

and employs a workforce of 30 local people.

Despite the remote location, guests expect luxury.

Standards are high, but logistics are tricky.

Saba's not expecting guests for a week,

but in this business, you have to be ready for anything.

I've just had a phone call saying that we've got some guests who want

to come in this weekend.

The problem is that... Haven't got enough tents.

It takes a day to turn each tent into a luxury bedroom.

She's just got ten hours before her guests arrive,

so it's all hands on deck.

Were having to move all the beds around, because the ones I've taken

down are our twin beds, our twin tents,

and the others are all these doubles.

OK, let's get it up, can you reach?

OK, Come on, then, up you go.

For the camp to be a financial success, Saba needs a regular

flow of guests, but she's taken over at the worst possible time.

It's been a tough time with four years of financial crisis, so people

aren't really coming out on holiday to Africa very much, at the moment,

which is why we have to make use of every opportunity that comes our way.

I can't quite get it there. Ah!

As well as top class accommodation, guests also expect gourmet dining.

Not so easy to achieve when you're in the wilderness.

But in this department, luck is on Saba's side.

The weekly food delivery truck is due today.

It's the camp's lifeline, but it's a six-hour round trip,

so if they forget the eggs, it's just too bad.

Hey, they're here.

Hey, look, the vegetables have arrived, everyone.

This is where we get all of our food from.

This is the main bulk of our supply.

Fresh food doesn't last long in the heat.

No, but it's just in time because we're literally down to our last

carrot and last mouldy tomato, so...

SHE SPEAKS SWAHILI

But there's a problem.

The meat and dairy products are missing,

and there's no fresh fruit, either.

They forgot them all in the fridge? So they haven't brought them.

There's just... I mean, look, this is now all that they've brought.

This is our apple supply for the whole week.

Four apples. What am I going to do with four apples?

Five oranges.

No food, no tents ready and guests arriving this evening.

Saba's dream is fast turning into a nightmare.

Saba's facing the tough realities of running a business

in a remote location.

Samburu National Reserve is part of an unfenced wilderness

in northern Kenya that stretches for hundreds of miles

in every direction.

It's home to the big names of African wildlife.

But it's the elephants that are the real stars.

Over 900 of them pass through the reserve every year.

Frank's new job is working with Save the Elephants,

a charity devoted to just that.

I tell you something, Samburu is a long,

long way from where I came from.

I grew up right in the middle of England in Oxford.

You know, Saba and I, we've always wanted to use this

time in our lives to go and have an adventure together with our kids

and be somewhere remote and wild, and there's nowhere more beautiful

and there's also a cause here that's more pressing than almost any other.

Frank has joined the charity to help fight the growing threat

facing elephants from the illegal ivory trade.

This area has been really badly hit in the past,

by this surge of poaching that's gone across Africa

between 2010 and 2012.

Africa lost over 100,000 elephants just in those three years.

Last year, 15 elephants were killed in this area,

so Frank's set himself a huge challenge.

What I'd really love to see, is that this year

we have no more elephants killed in Samburu.

His first task is to scour the reserve in search of

one very important elephant.

At 30, Wendy is young to be leading a herd.

All her adult relatives have been wiped out by ivory poachers.

As the oldest remaining elephant, she's now in charge of a rag-tag

herd of orphan youngsters.

The team has fitted a tracking device around her neck

to keep an eye on this young family.

But the battery on the device is running out

and the signal is getting weaker.

Frank has got to find her and change it

before the signal dies completely.

With 100 square miles to search, it'll be a long day.

Saba's day is also going to be a long one.

With no food to feed her guests, she has to hit the trail on an

exhausting round trip to the nearest shops.

It'll take most of the day.

It's such a bone-rattling road. I hate doing this drive.

Running a safari camp in this remote location is going to be expensive.

No, this has to work because otherwise we're going to be

seriously out of pocket.

SHE SPEAKS SWAHILI

The camp relies on Mama Karimi's grocery store

for its fresh supplies.

She's a very astute businesswoman who has this lovely veggie shop

and also does deliveries.

So, anyway, I hope we can sort that out today.

You know, we've been having problems with our vegetable supplies.

For the last three months.

Sometimes they leave things behind in the fridge and then sometimes

I've given a long order and they've brought me broccoli only.

And I've got all these clients who are coming in camp and I'm saying,

"Well, where are my other vegetables?"

And they're like, "Ah, well, you know."

The scale of what she's taken on is starting to hit home.

I just feel like sometimes, you know, we have to put so much

money in right now and I just don't know that we're going to get it back.

That's my deep, dark fear that keeps me awake at night.

But there's no time to dwell on the expense.

The guests arrive in just three hours and the chef needs supplies.

The reason people are drawn to Samburu is

the experience of getting close to wild animals.

There are no fences in camp,

and meeting the wrong animal at the wrong time

could be dangerous.

So Saba needs security for her guests and her family.

Mporian is a warrior from the local Samburu community.

Mporian comes to work armed with a machete, a spear and a slingshot.

He has an intimate knowledge of animal behaviour

and a particular expertise with looking after cheeky monkeys.

The river is full of crocodiles,

but the girls will be safe with Mporian around.

The tents are almost ready and Saba's made it back with the food.

Time to sort the menus.

For the dinner, let's do the fish. Let's use the fish up.

Cheese souffle, toasted bread, fish curry, coconut rice. Hello, monsters.

-Hello, monsters.

-Hello, Mama.

I'm beginning to feel a little bit more in control

and, you know, where the systems are beginning to work,

so I think we're going to start seeing results.

Mummy?

There's just half an hour before the guests arrive.

For Saba, things are beginning to look up,

which is more than can be said for husband Frank.

He's still looking for Wendy

to change the batteries on her tracking device.

He can't find her on the ground, so he'll have to take to the air.

Fortunately, Saba's dad Iain is here to lend a hand.

Iain Douglas-Hamilton is one of the foremost elephant

experts in the world.

He's also one of the best bush pilots around.

From the air, there's no-one that knows Samburu better.

-Have you got that range map that Gilbert prepared?

-Yeah, absolutely.

They've got to pick up the signal

from Wendy's tracking device before it dies completely.

-OK, so, this is the park area here.

-Right, OK.

And then she goes up the Ewaso river.

This should be the right location.

Slowly homing in on this signal,

consistently getting a strong signal from this bend in the river, here.

But there's no sign of Wendy.

It just goes to show that an elephant might be huge,

but it's sometimes difficult to spot.

Fortunately, Iain's had a lifetime of experience spotting elephants.

Look on the left.

Oh, my God, it's a herd of 40 elephants.

How could we not have seen these?

And here she is. Right down here, there's Wendy with her little collar

sitting right in the middle of the herd surrounded by all the others.

So that's great. Now we can get into action and get in there

and replace that collar.

Success, but now Frank faces an even bigger challenge...

To get the collar around Wendy's neck.

Saba's guests have arrived at the airstrip.

At the camp, the rooms are getting their finishing touches.

But the guests aren't the only ones that like the complimentary snacks.

Black-faced vervet monkeys are too clever by half.

They even have a look-out.

Shoo!

-Get!

-Argh!

Oh, you monkeys. I'm going to kill you!

I think people think I'm a bit psychotic, because...

Especially the staff.

They hear me swearing my head off and racing around baring my teeth

and snarling, going after the monkeys.

Because I'm trying to use, you know, body language that the monkeys

will understand.

So, if you want to show a monkey that you're dominant,

you have to go like this...

You have to stare at him and you can't blink,

which is quite hard and then, eventually, they look away

and then you know that you've won.

Saba's team is back from the airstrip.

Everything is done, ready, time to go.

Welcome!

She's managed to overcome today's crises

to welcome her first paying guests.

Out in the reserve, they're ready to fit Wendy's tracking device.

There's a team of 12 on location, led by Save the Elephants'

Head of Field Research, David Daballen.

Such an important elephant, because Wendy has a whole bunch of

orphan calves that are actually depending on her.

So what will be involved in today's operation, is, actually,

making sure that the vet is there, the animal is at the right place,

at the right time, and all the equipment,

everything is in the right place, so it's huge logistics.

Huge logistics for a huge animal.

This is no ordinary battery change.

Saba is an elephant expert in her own right.

With her guests settled in camp,

she can play her part in keeping everyone safe.

Oh, this could be tricky.

The security of the animal is paramount

and we have to make sure, also, that our team is not compromised.

My job in this exercise is to protect the team.

And that's no mean feat.

She has to put herself between the team and the herd.

I don't know. I always get given this job, for some reason.

Maybe somebody's trying to get rid of me.

Time to get into position.

Could everyone just listen on the radio?

So, Saba, if you could pass where I am, just more west,

that would be good.

OK, the female's right here.

There is the tracking device.

Got her in sight.

OK, we're just going to put the dart in any time.

The vet, Matthew Mutinda, is standing by with the tranquiliser.

Dart's in, 10.45.

It'll be a few minutes before Wendy goes to sleep.

So this is a good situation.

She's not too panicked, she hasn't given alarm calls,

so the rest of the family are relatively secure.

She can't quite figure out what's happened to her.

She's been stung by something that really hurt, but she's OK.

This is where it's really important to stay quiet

and not give her any reason to feel under threat from us.

Attaching the tracking device is vital.

If the team knows where Wendy is,

they can stay one step ahead of the poachers.

So what's going to happen now is, David's actually going to go in,

because we're about five minutes into the drug taking effect

and normally it takes about eight minutes.

As soon as she starts getting woozy, which is happening now...

Look, she's going to go down any minute.

And there's something else to worry about.

Where's the baby?

David and Saba will have to temporarily separate

Wendy from her baby.

The danger with the baby is that it'll stay close and interfere

and get very upset.

The other thing that can happen is

the mother can actually fall over on top of the baby,

so if we can just shoo her away, it's a lot better.

-I'm going to come a bit closer.

-Yep, sure.

David makes his move to split up Wendy and her calf.

I have to be careful because she's going to go down

and I can't get too close.

They've isolated her from the others. She should go down any minute now.

She's not going in a good position.

Done it, quick, quick, quick!

We need to push. Just get in.

David has to get Wendy onto her side so she can breathe easily.

Then it's off with the old collar. And Saba gets to work.

And thing is, I've got these females here.

I can't let them see her. We need another car blocking.

It's just these poor elephants, you know,

I can understand they're a very tight group, they're all around

and we've just got to make damn sure that we keep them away from

the team because we need to get this collar on as quickly as possible.

OK, it's good, it's good.

We're about ten minutes in.

Collar's almost on.

We've got three of the bolts looking good.

Just trying to cool the elephant down.

Team leader David is keeping a careful eye on the time.

It was tense to start with, but it's fine now.

The females are trying to defend their mother.

The last thing they want to see is when she's down like that.

They associate that with death, because she's not normally down,

she's the one leading.

Saba is still busy keeping Wendy out of sight of the other females.

If they think their leader is dead, they could get aggressive.

I hate disturbing the elephants, but the thing is,

that when they're in a tight-knit group like that,

of course, their immediate reaction is to, ah, rush to the rescue.

Once again, hammers home how incredible elephants are, that they

will put themselves, their bodies, in between their families and danger.

I love them so much. Amazing animals.

The collar is secure.

Time to wake up Wendy. This will counteract the effects of the dart.

The antidote's about to go in and everyone's got to be in the cars

when the antidote goes in, because it can be quick

and if it's quick, it can be very, very dangerous.

OK, antidote in 12.03.

The whole operation has taken just 12 minutes.

Well done, David. Well done, team.

Great job.

That's perfect, darling, off you go. Phew!

We should go and make sure that she reunites successfully

with her baby now.

Wendy follows her nose back to the safety of the herd...

..where her baby is desperate to see her.

Once again, Wendy can be tracked.

If poachers do come into the reserve, David and the team

can help keep her and her family safe.

It's been an incredible day in Samburu.

Frank's helped protect elephants and against the odds,

Saba's safari camp has opened for business.

But she's not finished quite yet. Dinner needs organising.

Frank and Iain are on baby sitting duty.

-Mama, Mama, Mama.

-Mama's back.

-CHILDREN:

-Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama.

-Hi, kiddies, hi, kiddies.

-Hello, mama.

-Hi.

I have to go and have a shower quickly and get ready

because of the guests.

We're eating at eight o'clock, if you can be ready.

I've got five minutes to have a shower and then run to the kitchen.

Saba and Frank dine with the camp guests,

so looking the part is important, at least for Saba.

Baby, you're looking so scruffy.

I know, but I don't have any clothes.

-I know but you really need to bring clothes.

-I know.

So, if you don't mind just going in to the mess

and just looking after everyone.

I'm just going to go quickly into the kitchen just to check

everything's OK. Next time, bring some trousers. God!

The guests expect top class dining, even in this remote place.

But there's a last-minute snag. One of them doesn't like coriander.

-Yes.

-It has got coriander.

OK.

This is delicious, Solomon. Delicious soup.

No matter what anyone says. All right.

Saba's first paying guests are here and they're happy.

Their big family adventure has got off to a flying start,

but this is just the beginning.

Next time...

There's a camp full of guests, but a bad smell in the air.

Saba drops everything to rescue an injured crocodile.

This is a last desperate attempt.

And there's a dramatic search in the bush for a lost child.

It's a very, very serious situation.