In the Eastern Cape, there is a magic place of
dunes, bush, rivers,
sea, and desert. It is a place
where the big ones are found.
It's home not only to the big five.
But the only national park where you can find all
of the big 7.
Search for the big 7.
The Garden of Eden.
This week, the zebra bus visits the Addo Elephant National
Park in the Eastern Cape.
Our first stop is the town of Addo, where our team is from.
I you.
Jump in
Now, Emily's house.
be your
Beyond Addo stretches the national park.
And soon we are inside.
must have.
You.
Yes. What
Well
See ya, come wild with us.
And with that, our story begins.
We're looking for the big 7 and what are the big 7?
And then what makes 7, the great white
shark and the whale and in Addo we
can see all of the big 7 because there's also a marine park here,
not just a land park. Did you know that?
I'm Emily. I'm Thumiso. I'm Lille, and
I'm Franco. We are on a special mission. The search for
the big seven. The question is, will we find them?
Road signs don't come. No.
Yes
The koo koo. Guys,
what are the warthogs called in Xhosa and the
kudu Wimpy, I know why the warthogs
stick their tails up. It means danger, and when they
eat or drink water, they bend their knees.
The males have big tusks.
That's why they are so ugly, no.
This I.
It's a very funny animal and it looks like a pancake. And
the tooth of the word hos is so rotten and it looks
ugly.
Whoa, look at this guys, this buffalo. Many of them.
If they're angry, you don't wanna be in front of those guys.
And even though they look like cows. It can
be so dangerous.
Hey guys, you're the 1st in the big 7, the
buffalo. Hasella
vista baby.
These are hand-raised buffalo, so they're very tame. They've been hand-raised by the rangers, by
Trafford and his team. These buffaloes, we got them at the water hole. They were abandoned
by their mother. We brought them in and we fed them here in the camp. We are going to dart
them, put them in a crate, and transport them to the other side of the park where they're gonna be
released. The darts that we put them in. We put a mixture of drugs in there. For how
long does the fall asleep? This is enough to keep it sleeping for at least
an hour. I don't want you to touch where the dart. Just from a safety point of view,
sometimes there's a little bit of bleeding there, and that blood can have some of the drugs in it
still. So you get it on your hands, you forget about it, and you eat something and you can take
in that drug. And afterwards, make sure you wash your hands. OK? They're still wild animals,
even if they've been hand raised, when they get bigger, they can actually become very dangerous because they
haven't got a fear for people. So that's why we want to try to get them out of this little
camp now away from people and with the herd of buffalo. Hopefully we're not gonna dart
the horse. Yeah.
Hopefully they don't run off into the bush and you have to carry them out. Hey,
wait. Reggie, come. What I'm doing is just try and get
out of that bush there. Come on to the back.
Hey, come on. You can actually walk them into the crate and we can get them like a.
Get it out push from behind. I come
up. See? OK,
close the door.
OK, well done, guys. OK, so that worked quite well. We actually caught them
before they were fully asleep and we managed to walk them in here instead of having to carry them in.
Hopefully they'll be sleeping now. We can put the collar on and I can do the treatments.
Yeah, they're both sleeping now. Where those blindfolds. Now they are
mobilized. They're gonna give them treatment for ticks and internal parasites, and then
we'll wake them up. Do you want to come in? Have you touched a buffalo before? Comes fast asleep, so he is.
This one is probably about 200 kg. The
females, when they're bigger, they're about 6 700 kg, so they'll get 3 times the
size and a big bull can get up to 800 900 kg. They really get
big, big necks, big muscles. He wants to give an injection here. You
see all the hair loss and that, that can also be mange. So this will help treat that as
well into the muscle.
So they've had their treatment Now we must just put that collar on.
Whatever you want to help, Trford. Can
come and take any do? They're both breathing nicely.
I start. We're gonna come out now. Just be careful of the blood here,
just step over. So you're not scared of buffaloes anymore, hey?
Hey? They're gentle beasts. You wanna come and have a look at them waking up? Come
stand here by the door.
Here we go, standing up. Yeah,
they're both standing nicely. They've got lots of grass to eat.
for the truck. Look, it's got a crane. It's
going to lift the container up and then the truck is gonna take them far
away to another part of the park where they will be released into
freedom and they're going to live normal lives there. It's the
vet's responsibility, the safety of those animals. That's why Dr.
Dave is checking everything.
As evening rolls in, the team decides to do one more
thing. The leopard is very shy and very difficult to
see, but we really wanted to see one.
Trit came up with a very wonderful idea with
a camera trap. This camera trap, it even takes pictures at night as
well. We put the camera in a safe place to take the leopard
photo. If there is any motion coming from that side, this is where it's gonna
get a picture for us. We'll be able to see if maybe we
do also have a leopard in this section. OK guys, let's get going.
Under the cover of darkness, the
exploration continues.
No, yeah, yeah, bumpy.
Yes. Oh, look at it, it is a little spider.
OK, that's good spotting.
Oh, look at that spider.
Look, I won. It's called a lichen. It's a
fungus and an algae. You must always put
things back where you found them. Yeah. Oh, and look at this lichen
that fell off the top of the tree, and you know what they call this lichen.
Oh man's. Yes, don't pull my beard. I'm
an old man.
Don't let it go. You
Come and look at guys. It's a creek. Look at its long,
long antennae. It's got these long antennae
so he can walk at night. Come and look, guys, and it
can feel where it is.
Oh You feel a little
strange at first, but it's nice, isn't it? It's a friendly cricket. Come up, up,
up, put your hand higher it
it it it it it.
OK, OK, OK. I'll take it away.
No, come and look at&D. Come and look. It's a friendly old
cricketunaiko's up my aunt. I can you not smoke i don't tell him
on this halo kunkula. You know
it's.
I'm just gonna yeah that means
no I say fantasies. Most me, there's no fantastic.
That's fantastic, Emily. You see, you were scared of
it before, but now you're not scared. Fantastic, you've
overcome your fear.
You saw him first, now you can release him.
Isn't that something
give up his ear.
OK, guys, we're back at the place where we set the camera.
Let's see what news there is.
Do you have a news for us, Uncle Trevor? What do you see on the
picture? Oh, look how beautiful it is.
The camera trap assisted us very well and we got
photos of a leopard. And it helps us now in identifying that how many big 7
we've got in Ale National Park. Uncle, a leopard
bite like. Like it's just like a lion. Like are
you afraid of a lion? A
leopard is a cat just like a lion, so
we just need to stay out of their way as well, because this is their environment.
Oh let's go.
The team leaves the lush green bush behind,
continuing on their search for the big seven, they head
further inland where it is drier.
Look, look, look, guys, cheetahs, can you see them? Yeah, I
I can see guys, check out. There are two of them. Look at them, look at them.
Oh
Cheetahs are amazing runners. In 3 seconds they can
accelerate to 100 kilometers per hour and reach
120 kilometers, the fastest
animal on land.
So.
Hey guys, look at this. Whoa.
Guys, look at that, look at that. Whoa, I didn't
know what was going on when we suddenly stopped and all of us, they
jumped out and I saw Mi was chasing after something, but I didn't see what
it was. Doesn't it bites.
Come guys, come and have a look. It looks just like
a dinosaur. This is like a lizard,
the same family as a lizard. It's a reptile. It's just a
very big one. And I was just so scared. Come and look.
Oh. You can hold him.
It was holding its mouth open like it wants to bite me. I
didn't even want to touch it. See, no, that's all right.
Look at the feet, you'll see the nails there.
They lay eggs
so they would make a nest and lay their eggs. OK, I'm gonna put him
back.
There he goes, and he was eating something on the road. He
ate a rabbit that was run over and I'm gonna take the rabbit
to him because I don't want him to be in the road eating the rabbit and some
car come and run him over. Bye bye, Mr. Legevan.
The black rhino came and made poo poo. And I'll
bring some for you to look at. OK guys, look at
this. What do you see? Yes, a stick,
you're right, hard pieces of twigs, not so much grass
like you would have with a white rhino. So the white rhino is a
grazer. It's got square lips and it goes like.
And the black rhino, the browser, has got this long
lips that it can twist around a twig and pull
it off and eat it. See, it smells just like
vegetation, which is exactly what it is. Twigs and things that
pass through the gut of the rhino. And when a rhino is
finished doing its business, it kicks his
apart. Yes, you mark the territory and if
another male rhino comes there, we could have a fight. Want to take some
home to your mother?
After a long hot day, the night falls. The
rhino droppings they found were dry, and the rhino long
gone. But who knows what tomorrow will bring.
The team enlisted the help of rangers to track and
find a rhino.
The wind comes from that side, so we can go around and drive from the bottom
end. So we have to be very careful.
Just out there
Oh. I.
Ki.
Completely in the open when you guys saw them. Yes, yes. That was
so amazing to see a rhino. I did see
the rhino running into the bushes. I
see his body and his horns are so beautiful. It was
really beautiful. Another one of the big seven.
No, guys, come and have a look at this.
Check this, guys.
I bet you.
Oh.
I
And why does it have all these colors? It's for camouflage. See, now you're holding them
on your own. Isn't that nice.
Yes fine OK you open your ear.
Snakes are so clean, they've got no hairs, and sometimes when I
study things and I find a snake, I want to write some notes and I don't
have enough hands, I can hold them like this.
You let me try. nice.
I was scared that time when Emily put the snakes in the
snake in her mouth. By the time when she take it out, she
haven't faint or get some
pimples on her skin, but I think she's going to find
some pimples on her skin. It's my first time that I hold
a snake and the skin is so beautiful.
colors on his skin. I thought when Emily put the
snake in her mouth, it was kind of gross, but
snakes are clean and nature are clean, and I
love the nature, but I'm scared of some of the animals. Do you think
it's right if people find that they just kill them?
No, because they're beautiful. Our people who killed them, but it's not nice. We must protect a
snake, and we can't kill them in the park, not
even outside of the park. You can't kill snakes because this snake
is harmless. He's caused no one any harm, and he also
eats things. He helps to keep the balance in nature, and he's
such a friendly little guy. Shall we put him back? Yes,
let's find a nice spot for him.
Before the day is done, the team has one last adventure
to go on.
Oh. It was.
OK, now we're gonna try and track them down here. They are here up here. Each of
these lions, they've got a collar. So now we're gonna put in the frequencies of one
of them and try to check it out now with this er. Great, so let's
get out and we see howrier does it. Each line has a
collar with a radio and they're gonna put that number in for that
line. Now you will see if
maybe he's picking up signal. now starting
to pick up. Guys, this looks like the end of the road for the
zebra bus and we're gonna have to go in the parked vehicle. So let's get our
jackets and get on the back.
OK, there we go.
Yes. We are
getting really, really close now. Too
close for these lions. He's grabbing it.
OK, the line is now down in the ditch, and we're gonna see if we can
get a little bit closer. Oh, there's the other one. He's eating the
warho. I'm just getting off quickly to go and see where he is.
You can see. Does it, does it, does it, guys.
Please I
want me. To
see a lion was very scary, because the lion is a very
dangerous animal.
The thing I will remember most is how the lion grabbed the warthog and ran away with
it. Another of the big 7.
Guys, look at this cave.
Yeah.
We.
Whoa, look at this one right here, next year, next year, next year we can't.
So.
Yeah