Elephant Baby Boom 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 the 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.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

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.

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

Oh, my God.

This time, it's the last week of the season for camp,

-and elephants are being born across the reserve.

-Oh, my God!

Brunelleschi's waters have broken and we are racing

to get to her in time.

But the newborn calves are in trouble.

The drought means there is little food left in the bush.

Will the rains arrive and save the baby elephants?

No rain, no life.

It's not the best time for her to drop this calf,

but what can you do?

THUNDER RUMBLES

After four dry months in Samburu National Reserve,

the rains are overdue.

But the elephants are already having their calves.

A female called Brunelleschi has been reported to be in labour.

Saba is desperate to fulfil a lifelong dream.

Brunelleschi's waters have broken and we are racing

to get to her in time,

hopefully to see her having her baby,

which I've never, ever seen in my life.

So it's immensely exciting and I'm...

I don't know if we're going to make it.

We're going towards that little hill on the other side of this river.

-OVER RADIO:

-'Cross the river,

'go about 300 metres, turn right, and just go along the river.'

Save The Elephants' head of field operations David Daballen

is also racing to the scene.

I'm driving very fast,

because it's quite a distance where we're heading.

How long do you think it's going to take you to get there?

'Ten minutes.'

These baby elephants will need all the help they can get

until the rains arrive.

It's been an absolutely crazy race,

but I'm about ten minutes away, so I'm just hoping,

fingers crossed, toes crossed, everything crossed,

that we're going to get there in time.

This is a seriously incredible moment

and it's very rare for elephants to give birth during the day.

It normally happens at night.

David is first on the scene,

but it seems the report was a false alarm.

Whoa! My goodness, what a lot of drama.

Brunelleschi is still very much pregnant.

There's no sign of broken waters.

-Are you sure she wasn't peeing?

-I'm sure she was just peeing.

That's what we were talking about - she must have had a long pee.

DAVID CHUCKLES

Elephants carry their young for 22 months -

the longest pregnancy of any mammal.

David and Saba don't know exactly when Brunelleschi was mated,

so predicting her due date is impossible.

They will keep a close watch over her

to make sure she and the baby are fine.

DAVID OVER RADIO:

Waiting for an elephant to give birth

is a bit like watching a kettle boil.

DAVID CHUCKLES

ENGINE STARTS UP

As Saba heads back to camp,

David stays behind.

He's concerned that Brunelleschi

is not getting enough to eat in the drought.

Females usually give birth around the rainy season,

when food is plentiful.

Unless rain arrives soon,

the newborn calves will struggle to survive.

Back at camp, Saba is welcoming the last guests of the season.

..and then I'll show you the bathroom.

The drought means they have to conserve every drop of water.

Wildlife guide Bernard is making sure there's enough

for the guests' showers.

Water is an incredibly important resource.

Here it's very arid.

If the water runs out, then we're in a big problem.

We have to do everything that we can to reduce our water intake.

So what you do,

the way to do this is, you just wet yourself very quickly, like that...

Saba shows the guests how to save water.

..do everything you've got to do and then you rinse off again

with the rest of the bucket.

We're eco-friendly, close to nature.

Personally, my point of view is, if you have your clothes on today,

you can still put them on tomorrow.

So we do all laundry, but not underwear.

Yeah, we just don't do underwear and you do that by hand there

-and all the rest you can just put into that laundry bin.

-Perfect.

Bernard is taking the guests on safari.

He's grown up with Samburu's elephants

and wants everyone to love them like he does.

When you go out with guests,

you educate them about these animals

and how special they are

and how you can identify each and every one of them.

They also get interested and they want to learn,

because it's more special that way.

Other than just going to see a group of elephants

and you click away your camera, take photos, move on.

No, that is not how it is supposed to be.

It's supposed to mean something to you

and especially now that there's a lot of elephant crises

all over Africa and everywhere else in the world,

the few moments you stay with these animals and learn about them

and how they behave,

it's more fulfilling that way.

Getting people to connect with elephants

is what the camp is all about.

Over the last six months,

things have changed for Saba and the business.

When I came here, we were having a very slow season.

It wasn't looking great, but since then, everything's picked up a lot.

Also, we've been putting a lot of effort into marketing.

You know, social media, which we've dipped our toes into

for the first time, and it definitely helps raise our profile,

dabbling in social media.

We're trying to build up to running this camp at maximum capacity...

..for every reason. It's good for us financially,

we need it for conservation reasons, and it's really good for the camp.

For the family to continue their new life in the bush,

it's not just the camp that has to be a success.

THEY GREET EACH OTHER

Saba's husband Frank came here to protect elephants.

Over the last six months,

he's realised how important local people are

in the fight for their future.

Today, he's meeting the next generation of conservationists.

We are off to take a group of school kids to meet elephants.

Often, the way they normally meet elephants is on foot,

when herding goats or walking from place to place

and those interactions might not be as friendly as we'd like,

so we'd like to introduce them to elephants, just on friendlier terms.

Daughters Selkie, Mayian and Luna are joining him too.

Are you changing gears or what?

The people that live around these parts

are absolutely the most important ones

when it comes to securing the future for these elephants.

Without their sympathy and their love for these animals,

they're doomed, so we've got to do all we can

to help them know what elephants are really like.

David grew up in the bush and knows how scary elephants can be.

He wants the children to understand them better.

One of the things is to bring them out here

so that you can actually give them an opportunity for them to change,

so this is why these kids are here today -

to actually view these elephants in a different angle.

-Hi!

-Hey.

How are you?

How do they defend...? Well,

it's difficult.

They mostly defend themselves by hiding

and by running away.

But if the poachers get close

and if the poachers have guns,

then it's very difficult for the elephant to defend itself.

So the best defence for elephants - it's you, it's all of you.

You guys are the ones who have to defend the elephants.

Without you...

..there won't be any elephants left.

'For David, all these guys growing up

'around elephants on foot, that was a different experience.'

That was much more fear-based

-and you don't get to...

-SHE SLURPS DRINK

You don't get to casually spend time and observe their behaviour.

More often than not,

their interactions with elephants can be

when they walk through their village at night and so on,

which can be dangerous

and when they'll have negative interactions at a scary time.

Some of them thought that this elephant will hit the car,

some of them thought... They're not sure what will happen.

They just thought, "Why are we going close?"

If Frank and David can help these children

to overcome their fear of elephants, then there's hope for the future.

It's not just the local communities that are important.

The thousands of visitors that come to Samburu also play a part.

Bernard has found his guests a baby elephant born just a few days ago.

Let's see them go to the river to drink

and you'll be able to see the little baby.

SHE COOS

The mother of that baby is an old, experienced matriarch.

I think that baby has got a great future in front of him.

Did they just do a high-five with their trunks?

-I think so.

-I think they did.

They love socialising and they bond

and these bonds last for a lifetime.

Bernard has given his last guests an experience they'll remember for ever.

But even though the tourist season is over,

tomorrow is a big day.

Samburu will play host to some visitors

who could determine the future for these elephants.

It's the last day of the season at Elephant Watch Camp.

Saba and Frank's morning has started early.

Hello, my baby girl.

Come inside, darling.

Oh, my baby.

SHE SQUEALS HAPPILY

It's a make-or-break day for David and the reserve's elephants.

He's meeting Kenya's top judges to try to persuade them

to give poachers harsher sentences.

He wants to make a good first impression.

Very clean.

It's the chance of a lifetime

to safeguard the future of Samburu's elephants.

It's a nerve-racking responsibility.

HE SIGHS

ENGINE STARTS

At Elephant Watch, the guests have gone

and the team is closing down camp for the rainy season.

Some familiar faces have arrived in search of seed pods.

I think all the animals are just so hungry right now.

There's so little food around

and the bulls are willing to take this high-risk strategy

and come right into the middle of a human settlement

just to get their seed pods.

And one thing Saba has learned in the last six months

is never to miss a marketing opportunity.

I am the Facebook queen.

It's a relationship that benefits the business and the elephants.

Our guests love it when they're here.

The elephants can browse in peace

and Saba can show future guests what to expect.

But she's not the only one who gets excited when elephants come to visit.

Despite growing up in Samburu,

it's still a novel experience for camp cook Solomon.

For the girls, bumping into elephants is old news.

But there's still one animal they need to know more about.

It's Mporian's job to keep everyone in camp safe.

HE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

Today, he's taking the girls out for their last bushcraft lesson,

to learn about crocodiles.

-Hey!

-SHE GIGGLES

In the height of the dry season,

crocodiles retire to dens in the river bank.

HE LAUGHS

Oh!

But the children are safe.

The crocodiles will stay in their dens

until the rains arrive.

Lessons over, Mporian herds the girls back home for lunch.

On the other side of the reserve,

David is heading off to meet the judges.

Today is his best chance to persuade them

to give ivory poachers tougher sentences.

David's concerned because ivory poachers

are rarely prosecuted properly.

David's meeting them at the entrance of the reserve.

He's got to convince Kenya's top judges that killing an elephant

is a crime that should be taken seriously.

This is our first time to actually meet the judiciary

and these are the people who sit on the bench and make judgment,

so it's a big day in the sense that this is a rare opportunity

to actually talk to them and actually take them out in the field,

see some elephants, talk to them and maybe answer

some of the questions that go through their minds,

so it is absolutely a big day for me.

I just want to be best in my subject.

As the judges arrive,

David's doing his best to keep his nerves under control.

His first task is to meet the top man, Justice Nzioki.

Not far away, a calf has been born to an experienced 36-year-old female.

It's amazing, because Brunelleschi is literally about to pop

and then this other baby's been born.

That's a sure sign, I think, of the rain coming, not too far off.

A brand-new baby!

Let me see what sex it is.

It's a little boy.

He really looks like a little butterfly

that's just come out of his chrysalis.

With his ears still all folded over at the top,

it's almost like he's popped out

and has opened up his wings and they're still drying in the sun.

She's a wise old matriarch who will lead them through the tough times,

keep them out of danger as best she can.

Look, they're going down into the river now.

He must have been getting really hot and thirsty,

especially when he's so little.

But when they're this young,

they have absolutely no control over their trunks, so...

It's quite difficult for him to manage himself,

coming down near water and all of this will be

a completely new experience that he's never had before.

When you're a little elephant,

it's really hard to control your trunk,

cos there's hundreds and thousands of muscles in there

and it takes about six months for them

to actually get a handle on how to move things around

and use the tips to pick things up and even drink out of it.

That takes a long time to master.

I think Samburu is a test case,

in a way, of what can happen

in the rest of Africa, that we've been hit very badly by poaching,

but that we seem to be coming out of the worst of it now.

So long as the births exceed the deaths,

the population can grow again and it can recover.

So if we here in this part of Africa

are able to protect our elephants properly

and if we're able to deter the poachers,

if we're able to take cases through the courts

and get people prosecuted successfully and put away

and show that people cannot get away

with killing elephants or handling ivory,

then things are going to be good,

things will look up for the elephants.

It's down to David to convince Kenya's judges

that Samburu's elephants are worth saving.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

Ah, very bright.

David has shown the judges

how elephant families are affected by poaching.

And they seem to be listening.

It went excellent. It couldn't get better.

I'm so, so much excited about this. It's been wonderful.

The future of Samburu's elephants is looking brighter.

Mayian!

-SING-SONG:

-Where are you?

It's been a great day and a successful first season.

THEY GIGGLE

The camp team is throwing a party to celebrate.

Parties are hard to come by up here.

EXCITED CHATTER

For a Samburu warrior,

looking the part is essential.

I love my new feather.

This is a gift and it's a very special gift for me

and I like it very much.

Tonight, chief warrior Mporian will be master of ceremonies.

THEY SING IN LOCAL LANGUAGE

LAUGHTER

THEY CHEER

It's a reminder that the family are just guests

in this ancient Samburu territory.

-Hi!

-Hi-ya!

-THEY LAUGH

For Saba, her first season running the camp

has been a learning experience.

I don't feel so much like a chicken

with its head cut off running around any more.

Inevitably, every day, something unpredictable happens

that you have to deal with, but that's just life in the bush.

That's just what it's like.

That's part of the adventure of it all.

All of it comes down to the experience of the guests.

If the guests aren't happy,

then we're doing something wrong.

But they seem to be absolutely loving it

and more than that, it's not just loving it - they're engaging fully,

150% with Africa, with Samburu, with the elephants.

That, at the end of the day, is what it's all about.

And Frank and David have worked together to make Samburu

a safer place for elephants.

I feel really fortunate that the poaching levels are falling,

but there are a lot of challenges.

Even if we get beyond the poaching crisis

and we manage to persuade those who buy ivory not to buy ivory,

we persuade the poachers not to kill elephants any more -

even if all that quietens down,

we've got the challenge of a rapidly developing African nation,

but out of anywhere in Africa,

this is one of the places where there really is hope for elephants.

THEY SING But tonight is about celebrating

what Frank, Saba and their new Samburu family have achieved so far.

Mporian warms up the chorus.

HE VOCALISES

THEY BEGIN TO SING

THUNDER RUMBLES And in the distance,

the rains finally arrive,

just in time for Samburu's newest generation.

THEY CHANT AND SING

The family's adventure in this remote wilderness

is only just beginning,

but now Saba, Frank and the children can truly call Samburu home.

CHANTING AND SINGING CONTINUES