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Official YIFY movies site:
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[birds calling and singing]
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[birds calling and singing]
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[making bird call]
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[making bird call]
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[singing in foreign language]
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[singing in foreign language]
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[Werner] Washington, D.C.,
the Smithsonian Museum.
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The largest elephant
ever is here on display.
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This is Dr. Steve Boyes.
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He has been in search of
mysterious ghost elephants that
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may be descendants of this one.
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[singing in foreign language]
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- This is the first
time I've seen this elephant,
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this grand elephant
here at the Smithsonian.
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{\an8}I've dreamt of it 1,000 times.
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{\an8}I carry a photograph of
this elephant with me.
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{\an8}For ten years,
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I've been in
pursuit of its descendants in
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the part of Angola I've
been working and exploring.
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Now, they call it Henry.
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Now, Henry is a human name.
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And this is interesting
because the Nkangala,
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the people, the
Luchaze of that part of Angola,
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they believe and talk about in
their mythology of elephants
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leaving their bodies
to become human.
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And, well, this elephant
has left his body.
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There's nothing in there.
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There's just scaffolding.
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His skull and tusks were too
heavy to mount into the exhibit.
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But we get to go and
see the, the real skull,
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the original skull and tusks,
the, to meet Henry,
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this grand elephant, the
largest elephant ever recorded,
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the biggest living land animal.
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And, I can't believe I'm
standing in front of him,
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the greatest elephant ever.
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[singing in foreign language]
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[singing in foreign language]
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[Werner] And here are the
actual tusks of Henry.
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The Smithsonian allowed
us to take them out and film
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them in its storage.
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There are miles of
shelves with collected specimens
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that are never
seen by the public.
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And here is the skull of Henry.
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The label from 1955
identifying the hunter,
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Josef Fenykoevi,
is still attached.
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The continent of Africa.
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Henry was killed in Angola,
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not far from the
highlands where Steve Boyes
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has been searching
for the ghost elephants.
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It is a plateau of over
4,000 feet elevation.
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Its eastern part is
almost uninhabited.
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It is called the
Water Tower of Africa.
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The locals have
another name for it,
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the Source of Life.
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Annually, this water tower
supplies ten times the average
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freshwater use of the
state of California.
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Some of Africa's major rivers
have their sources there.
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In the north,
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the Congo that
ends up in the Atlantic,
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in the east,
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the Zambezi that
flows to the Indian Ocean.
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All the tributaries that
flow south form the gigantic
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wetlands of the Okavango Delta.
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Where the water runs down
from the water tower,
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valleys are carved
into the plateau.
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Here, in almost
impassable wetlands,
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the water collects in
source lakes and rivers.
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[singing in foreign language]
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And now, what is almost
unimaginable for us,
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the uninhabited highlands,
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the forest stretching
out in the distance,
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where all this
water comes from,
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is about the size of England.
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Steve Boyes and his team
have discovered there almost
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200 species new to science.
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Everything they have found
is unique to this place.
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[Steve] Look at us.
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[Werner] We accompanied
Steve Boyes to Namibia,
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about 1,000 miles south
of the Angolan highlands.
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Here, he has been in
contact for years with
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some Bushmen trackers,
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the best remaining in the world.
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These tribal people are the
most marginalized community in
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Namibia, even though
its government is working
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to improve this.
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The terms "San" and "Bushman"
originated as derogatory labels
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in the colonial era but
are now widely used.
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These people, Steve hopes,
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will make his dream
come true to find the
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elusive ghost elephants.
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This quest is it almost
going after the white whale?
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The unknown, the mysterious?
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- This is, it's, it is a
bit like Moby Dick,
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where I don't even know
if these elephants exist the
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way I imagine them.
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[Werner] Could it be that
they are your imagination,
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that you are after
ghosts that don't exist?
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- I am after ghosts
that don't exist right now.
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Um, I've spent my life...
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...living in a dream
that I never had.
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It is like the experience
of the Cuanavale source lake
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for the first time.
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You stand there, you feel
like you've been there before,
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but you have never been there.
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You feel like
you've dreamed it,
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but you've never dreamed it.
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You feel like you're in a dream.
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And these dreams
often come true.
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I believe we'll
find an elephant,
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maybe not as tall
as a building,
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as big as Henry in
the Smithsonian,
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but we'll find a bull elephant.
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[Werner] Does it matter
if they are a dream or
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existing in reality, for you?
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[Steve] It doesn't matter for
me if they are just a dream
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because that's almost better.
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Then they will always exist,
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'cause they
always could be there.
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And I can go back
for the rest of my life
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looking for them.
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And maybe one day,
you find them.
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But that's... that's it.
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Maybe that's the future of
all animals, all wildlife,
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is to be in a dream,
to be a memory.
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[♪ gentle music playing]
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[♪ gentle music playing]
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[♪ gentle music playing]
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[♪ gentle music playing]
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[♪ gentle music playing]
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[♪ gentle music playing]
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[♪ gentle music playing]
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[♪ gentle music playing]
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[♪ gentle music playing]
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{\an8}[Werner] This is Xui, one of
our San Bushman master trackers.
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His Ju/’hoansi language
consists of many clicking and
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smacking sounds far from
our phonetic system,
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but his language is complex
and rich in expression.
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Ju/’hoansi translated
means "real people."
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I kept wondering,
who are we, then?
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I still have a lot of hair
on my chest, on my body.
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Am I half an animal?
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[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
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[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
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[translator] As we used
to say when we saw you coming,
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we call you
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There are the "hairs" coming,
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we call you the "hairs"
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But you are also people.
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[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
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[translator] And
you are also the "whites."
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[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
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[translator] We also
call you the "whites."
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[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
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[Werner] Mimicking is an
important part of San culture.
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Xui was proud to demonstrate
for us how a kudu antelope
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finally went down from
his poisoned arrow.
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[♪ dramatic music playing]
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[vocalizing in Ju/'hoansi]
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{\an8}[Werner] These San Bushmen
here in the Kalahari Desert
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{\an8}of Northern Namibia
are the oldest,
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{\an8}the most primordial culture
since the dawn of man.
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They enter a state of trance.
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Thus, the spirit of
elephants can enter them.
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[vocalizing Ju/'hoansi]
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[Werner] The dance
lasts all night long.
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[vocalizing Ju/'hoansi]
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[vocalizing Ju/'hoansi]
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[vocalizing Ju/'hoansi]
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[vocalizing Ju/'hoansi]
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{\an8}[Werner] This is Kobus,
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{\an8}who will come to
Angola as a tracker.
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{\an8}We saw him fainting at the
elephant dance last night.
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I asked him if the spirit of
an elephant had entered him.
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[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
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[Werner] "Yes," he says,
"I went into a trance.
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I felt that something
entered my body.
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It could have been the
spirit of an elephant,
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but I cannot
describe it exactly.
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I'm still learning
to become a healer."
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{\an8}Xui Dawid is the third master
tracker to join the expedition
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to Angola to find
the ghost elephants.
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He's the only one
who speaks English.
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[Steve] In Angola, I see
the rubbing in the tree.
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[Xui] Yeah.
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[Steve] Can you see that
is that elephant because
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of the height?
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[Xui] So, if you scratch
the body up on the tree.
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[Steve] Yeah.
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- Like this.
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[Steve] Which is
the itchiest part?
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The itchy, is it the
shoulder or the back?
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- The shoulder. The shoulder.
- The shoulder blades are.
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- Yeah.
- Okay.
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- Yeah, and the
head here and the face.
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You make it, he
makes it like this.
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[Steve] On a tree?
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- In the tree. Yeah.
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- I'd quickly like to
introduce Kerllen Costa.
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He's from Angola,
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and he's been working
with the Luchaze in the
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Angolan highlands
for over a decade.
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This is Gary Trower.
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He's been working with
these communities,
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these San communities in
this area also for a decade.
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And it's a long journey to the
Angolan highlands from here.
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It's a week driving.
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It's over 1,000 miles.
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And, of course,
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the master trackers
are nervous about that.
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Gary will be joining
them on their journey up,
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and Kerllen will be up
there to receive them.
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So it's important that we spend
time with the master trackers
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and their families.
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[Werner] We were curious
about the poison Xui uses
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for his hunting.
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He took us into the bush
together with Ricardo,
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our translator, and Gary.
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00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:55,440
Xui is in search of a bush
that is depleted of its foliage.
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This is a sign for him that a
small beetle about the size of
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our ladybug has laid its eggs.
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The hatched grubs voraciously
eat all the leaves,
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then let themselves
drop to the ground,
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where they dig themselves
deep into the sand.
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Here, they form cocoons.
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It is these cocoons
Xui is after.
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[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
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[Werner] The grubs inside
are so phenomenally poisonous
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that a few of them would
even kill an elephant.
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Under no circumstance
must Xui have a cut or
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a scratch on his hand, or,
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slowly, within a day,
he would be stone dead.
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[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
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[Gary] So we have a little
pestle and mortar here,
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which is used for
grinding them up.
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Once you've mixed your poison
in here and it's ready,
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you make a little
spatula-type tool out of wood,
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and then you start smearing it.
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You can see this brown color.
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All the way from here to there
is where the poison is applied.
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You never actually apply
the poison on the tip,
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because if you
accidentally scratch yourself
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or cut yourself,
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so that's why you can
see it's clearly only
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on this section.
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[Werner] Xui once almost died
from this poison when he tried
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to break up a fight
between his older brother and
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00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:44,920
another young man.
250
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:49,080
He threw himself into the
middle and was stabbed with a
251
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:51,040
poisoned arrow.
252
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:56,680
There's a widespread
idealization that these Bushmen,
253
00:20:56,760 --> 00:21:00,560
as pure children of nature,
live in harmony.
254
00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:05,000
But like everywhere else,
there is jealousy, violence,
255
00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:07,520
and even murder.
256
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:08,800
[Gary] So what did he do?
257
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:09,920
As soon as he got
that poison in him,
258
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:10,960
what was his first reaction,
259
00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:12,480
and what did he
do to save his life?
260
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:16,160
[Werner] They made deep cuts in
his shoulder and many more cuts
261
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:19,680
all the way down his arm
to bleed out the poison.
262
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,400
His whole arm withered away,
263
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,920
and it took years
to grow back to the strength
264
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:29,760
of his other arm.
265
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:33,280
{\an8}- It's extremely poisonous.
266
00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:35,720
{\an8}If you have any cuts
in your hand,
267
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:37,960
{\an8}I can vouch for that,
268
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:40,880
that when I was in the lab,
in the process of trying to put
269
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,280
the protective cap
back on the needle after
270
00:21:43,360 --> 00:21:45,040
I've done the extract,
271
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:47,320
it went straight
through the glove and actually
272
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:49,320
pricked me twice.
273
00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:50,960
And I had been told
by the hunters that it
274
00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:52,240
starts burning immediately,
275
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:55,800
and I immediately
felt it burning like crazy.
276
00:21:56,360 --> 00:21:57,760
It was burning badly.
277
00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:00,000
[Werner] You didn't cut off
your hand or your finger.
278
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:01,200
You still have it.
279
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:02,800
[Gary] Yeah, so,
luckily, in the lab,
280
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:04,040
there was a tap right there.
281
00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:05,280
I took the latex glove off.
282
00:22:05,360 --> 00:22:06,920
I had my finger under the tap,
283
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:09,600
and I was making sure
that no blood could come out.
284
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:12,560
And I just kept doing this
repeatedly and letting it bleed
285
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,360
into the basin, flushing it,
flushing it, flushing it,
286
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:18,160
so, 'cause once it gets
into your bloodstream,
287
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,120
it will go up your arm.
288
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:22,880
And, generally, the only way
to save yourself is to cut
289
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:26,240
yourself all the way up
so that it can bleed out
290
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,280
as much as possible
before it reaches your heart.
291
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,000
[Werner] What kind
of poison is it?
292
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:33,520
It's a nerve poison
or what is it?
293
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:35,000
[Gary] It actually works
in several different ways.
294
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:37,640
So the grubs actually
are a hemolytic poison,
295
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:39,840
which means they break
down red blood cells.
296
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,280
So what happens is, the animal,
you can actually see in its
297
00:22:43,360 --> 00:22:47,480
urine, the urine actually
turns black because that's
298
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,000
all the broken red blood
cells that are now being
299
00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:51,720
flushed out of the body.
300
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:53,560
And another part,
301
00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:57,200
what it does is, it actually,
it contains saponins, which,
302
00:22:57,280 --> 00:22:59,840
once the poison
travels to your lungs,
303
00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:02,200
it starts foaming
and making bubbles.
304
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:04,440
And that prevents the animal
from breathing because the
305
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,520
whole air tube and
the nose and nostrils,
306
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,840
I mean, mouth,
fill up with bubbles.
307
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,000
[Werner] Because his
arrows are poisoned,
308
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,000
Xui's bow is small.
309
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,000
He's one of the
greatest trackers alive.
310
00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:24,480
He can read tracks in the sand
as we would read a newspaper.
311
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,720
But he reads with
all his senses.
312
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:31,480
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
313
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,560
[Werner] He hears
a bird alarmed,
314
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,000
and this tells him a
leopard might be nearby.
315
00:23:38,120 --> 00:23:41,400
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
316
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,560
[Werner] He sniffs the air
for the scent of elephants.
317
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:55,800
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
318
00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,080
[Werner] He senses
the ground vibrating from
319
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,000
the hooves of
fleeing roan antelopes.
320
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:07,200
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
321
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:14,360
[making antelope call]
322
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:25,320
[Werner] Xui is very good
at imitating a small antelope
323
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,520
in distress in order
to attract the mother.
324
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:32,600
The danger is, he could
attract a leopard as well.
325
00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:35,440
[Xui] Yes you have
to move very carefully
326
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:37,920
before you make that sound.
327
00:24:39,360 --> 00:24:41,720
{\an8}[Werner] Kerllen Costa
is Angolan.
328
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:45,320
{\an8}He dreamt of a career as a
professional soccer player,
329
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,080
but then he became
an anthropologist.
330
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,520
[Kerllen] I was born
and raised in Angola.
331
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,600
Most of my childhood was
spent during the height of the
332
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,280
Angolan Civil War.
333
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,280
Because my father was an
helicopter pilot for the army,
334
00:25:00,360 --> 00:25:03,680
I spent a lot of hours
beside him in the cockpit
335
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,280
of his helicopter,
not only fighting in the war,
336
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:09,720
but trying to run away and
make sure his family was safe.
337
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:12,000
And on these journeys,
338
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,960
I witnessed and listened
to a lot of stories,
339
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,240
a lot of atrocities that no
human should ever see
340
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,320
nor hear, for that matter.
341
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:26,000
And it really represented the
Angolan Civil War at its highest
342
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:29,720
where helicopters are
machine-gunning elephants
343
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,360
from afar, where boats
with soldiers are rifling
344
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,360
hippos on the river,
345
00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:38,320
where soldiers running
in the middle of the forest are
346
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:41,520
shooting down every single
animal that they can see.
347
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:46,800
This really represents the
divide that resulted between
348
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:50,680
biodiversity and humans,
because it's not only humans
349
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:52,240
that were affected,
for example,
350
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:54,520
from what is one of the
countries most affected
351
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:55,840
by land mines.
352
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:57,120
It's also animals,
353
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,520
because these animals were
being killed by land mines.
354
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,920
They were meant for tanks
and trucks and other things,
355
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,880
but they were being really
destroyed by these land mines.
356
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:09,320
And that's why you see
these Angolan refugees,
357
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:11,600
humans and animals,
358
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,040
scattering throughout
the continent.
359
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,960
And this seems to be
a worldwide trend,
360
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:20,240
it's not just Angola,
361
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:24,960
where you see humans
fighting against creation.
362
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:29,320
And this was witnessed
also in America, for example,
363
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:31,080
in the late 1800s,
364
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:35,240
where the trains would go
through the heart of America
365
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:38,840
very slowly, and with
people inside it just shooting
366
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,280
at buffaloes and
everything that they could see.
367
00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,840
Not to eat, but just for
the sake of shooting.
368
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:49,280
As if man is on a mission to
destroy what he is part of,
369
00:26:49,360 --> 00:26:51,920
what he is part of, his
essence, which is life,
370
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:54,080
which is biodiversity.
371
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,680
This is also represented
by the Fenykovi elephant,
372
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:02,880
which was shot by Fenykovi,
which is, up until now,
373
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,200
the biggest recorded
elephant in the world.
374
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:11,000
This is an Angolan citizen,
an Angolan elephant.
375
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,520
He was shot because
of his majestic-ness,
376
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:16,560
because of his greatness.
377
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:21,320
And it seems like this
greatness is what causes not
378
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:25,640
just this elephant but all
other living beings to be
379
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,000
destroyed by humans.
380
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:36,920
{\an8}[Werner] This material is
from the 1966 Italian film
381
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:38,960
{\an8}"Africa Addio."
382
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:41,360
{\an8}At this time,
383
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:43,560
big-game
hunting was still fashionable.
384
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,400
[roaring]
385
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,760
[singing in foreign language]
386
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:02,640
[gunshot]
387
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:12,440
[gunshot]
388
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:17,360
[gunshot]
389
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:31,040
[singing in foreign language]
390
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:45,560
[trumpet and roar]
391
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:54,960
[gunshot]
392
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:07,200
[singing in foreign language]
393
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:22,840
[singing in foreign language]
394
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:40,320
[singing in foreign language]
395
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:55,120
[singing in foreign language]
396
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:07,200
[♪ somber music playing]
397
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:21,360
[singing in foreign language]
398
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:36,400
[singing in foreign language]
399
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:40,200
[Werner] Today, our respect for
nature has changed.
400
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:45,280
Even a huge fallen tree
has its local guardians.
401
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:48,760
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
402
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,520
[Steve] We have
the permission of the guardians
403
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,440
to visit this
incredible baobab,
404
00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:57,040
1,000 years old.
405
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:01,200
The ground trodden by the
elephants that move around here
406
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:04,200
looking for parts of
the baobab to feed on,
407
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:07,400
like this over here.
408
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:10,280
You can see their
tracks from days ago.
409
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:23,480
You can see here,
that's the bull.
410
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:26,680
It's about 50 centimeters.
411
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:30,200
And if you take the
longest diameter and
412
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:32,480
multiply it by seven,
you'll get his shoulder height.
413
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,280
So he is nine foot tall,
414
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:38,640
very big bull on the
edge of the breeding herd
415
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:40,320
as they feed here.
416
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,560
Not part of them,
here to visit with them.
417
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:49,120
But now the Fenykovi
elephant in the Smithsonian,
418
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:53,280
the largest living land
animal ever recorded,
419
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:59,320
its footprint was, that big.
420
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:03,680
{\an8}You can see now,
compared to this.
421
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:08,120
This is his front foot
carrying the bulk of his head
422
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:09,840
and his tusks.
423
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:13,520
Now, the first footprint
that Fenykovi found,
424
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:19,520
{\an8}Josef Fenykoevi, was another,
50 centimeters.
425
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:22,920
{\an8}So that foot was this big.
426
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,440
Now, he thought
this was something new,
427
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:33,800
a mammoth, a mastodon.
428
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:36,680
{\an8}An elephant like
Africa's, never seen,
429
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:38,600
{\an8}the world has never seen.
430
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:41,640
{\an8}This he found on his
first expedition in 1955.
431
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:45,760
They found two bulls
together under a tree.
432
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:51,360
They put 17 high-caliber
rounds into the biggest one,
433
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,720
the Fenykoevi, as he turned
out to be called, Henry.
434
00:32:56,960 --> 00:32:58,800
They pursued him for 15
kilometers in a Jeep with the
435
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:02,760
trackers until he collapsed.
436
00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:05,040
And then, upon skinning him,
437
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:09,760
they found that
he had a flintlock round
438
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:12,800
in his thigh, in
his front thigh.
439
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:14,440
Now, these were
typically given in the
440
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,040
18th and 19th centuries
to tribal leaders,
441
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,640
to kings for their support of
the ivory and the slave trade
442
00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:22,920
in that part of
Africa, Portuguese.
443
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,680
So this elephant at this size,
444
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:29,440
must have been
over 100 years old.
445
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,040
An elephant that no one had
ever imagined could exist,
446
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:38,200
an elephant, that we don't
understand today as it stands
447
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:40,040
there in the museum,
448
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,800
an elephant that may
be a new subspecies.
449
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:45,400
When we talk to
the Luchaze today,
450
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:47,560
they've told us of
these elephants,
451
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:49,040
the ones that they've seen,
452
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:50,880
encountering forest
elephants with red eyes.
453
00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:54,560
So we really don't know.
454
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:59,240
And I'm here to seek help,
455
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:01,560
the same help
that Fenykovi had,
456
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:05,840
Khoisan Bushmen master
trackers to help us,
457
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,800
Kerllen and the Luchaze,
find the Fenykoevi,
458
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:12,600
find Henry, find the
descendants of Henry.
459
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:15,920
Get tissue samples that
we can compare to what we
460
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,640
have in the Smithsonian,
because in the Smithsonian,
461
00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:21,760
the skin alone was two
tons when it arrived there.
462
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,600
They used five tons of material
to build the elephant up,
463
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:29,280
but the skull was one
- and-a-half times bigger
464
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:31,600
than any skull on
record in any museum.
465
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:34,880
And the tusks were
too heavy, their bulk,
466
00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:37,600
to mount onto the exhibit,
so those are in storage.
467
00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:41,160
We can extract ancient DNA
from those for comparison to
468
00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:42,680
what we find today.
469
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:48,600
[Werner] What is interesting
is how the media reported about
470
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:50,320
this hunt at the time.
471
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:55,560
Here to the left, Fenykovi
poses in front of his trophy.
472
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:01,000
It was Sports Illustrated
that celebrated the sportsman
473
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:04,080
who had set a new world record.
474
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,480
Fenykovi took
meticulous measurements.
475
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:12,000
Here, his sketch with all
the detailed dimensions.
476
00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:15,480
On the top right,
477
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:19,760
he includes a sworn statement
to the correctness of his data.
478
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,840
The emphasis is on the
proof of the new record that
479
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:29,080
has never been
surpassed to this day.
480
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,280
- Ghost elephants are
these last great giants,
481
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:45,920
living in these
high-altitude forests.
482
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,000
We don't find elephants
over 1,200 meters.
483
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:50,680
They're up there in the sky.
484
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:54,080
I mean, the terra do
fim do mundo,
485
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,720
the Lisima lya Mwono,
486
00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:00,040
Source of Life, it's this,
it's this place.
487
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:04,480
It's the Kalahari but raised
into the sky like a temple.
488
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:11,600
I-it's, it's, under it is a,
I don't, what do they call it,
489
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:14,480
a kimberlite supercluster.
490
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:16,480
It's diamonds and
rare earth minerals,
491
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:19,320
and gold coming up and
pushing it into the sky.
492
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:22,400
There is a free-air
gravity anomaly.
493
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:23,800
This means gravity
is too much there.
494
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:25,600
What's coming up is
coming up too fast.
495
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:29,360
It's raised this desert
into the sky where it's
496
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:30,840
formed mist belts.
497
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:33,200
So every morning it's misty
over these lakes that are not
498
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:35,720
meant to be there.
499
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,440
It's a place for
lost things, like us.
500
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:43,120
It's filled with real
magic, whatever that is.
501
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:46,720
I've been to the place where
an entire river disappears into
502
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:48,440
the ground, or I don't
know where it went,
503
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:51,320
a raging river into
a dark channel.
504
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,320
[♪ reflective music playing]
505
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,840
[Werner] I've heard people
saying that finding the
506
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:12,920
elephants means
finding ourselves.
507
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,600
But do we really learn
anything from them?
508
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:20,840
- I'm not gonna learn
anything from a ghost elephant.
509
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:23,320
Um...
510
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,040
...maybe it's better
staying as a dream.
511
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:33,440
Um, but it's something we chase,
dreams, as humans.
512
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:35,200
We share dreams with each other.
513
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:40,840
And maybe if this stayed as a
dream for the rest of my life,
514
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,120
go up there once a year in
September to the springs they
515
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:44,280
say that they come to,
516
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:46,880
sitting there quietly,
like Vundumtiki,
517
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:51,760
maybe that's better.
518
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:07,000
[♪ mystical music playing]
519
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:20,920
[singing in foreign language]
520
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:35,000
[singing in foreign language]
521
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:48,960
[Werner] Tell us how
ancient the San people are.
522
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:54,360
- Okay, as a scientist,
there is the principle of
523
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:57,000
greatest genetic diversity.
524
00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:00,760
And that gives the
Kalahari San, the Bushmen,
525
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:06,960
uh, the greatest time depth,
so, they are the first people.
526
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:13,160
We, all of us, are the
descendants of a small founding
527
00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:17,680
population of
Kalahari San Bushmen,
528
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:22,000
that survived the Ice Age,
529
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:26,000
hiding ostrich eggs
in the desert,
530
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:31,240
hunting with poison,
and where to walk out.
531
00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:35,320
Some went north,
some south to the coast.
532
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:37,120
And you follow the genetics,
533
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:39,160
they walked the coastline
all the way to Australia,
534
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:42,120
because the next genetic
markers are the Aborigine
535
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:43,480
peoples of Australia.
536
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,040
So how quickly they
walked straightaway,
537
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:47,800
and then the rest of the world.
538
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:49,280
[Werner] In other words,
539
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,000
we are the direct
descendants of them.
540
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:54,080
They are our direct ancestors.
541
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:56,480
- Yes.
542
00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:02,000
Um, to think of them as
being different is, uh, bizarre,
543
00:40:02,720 --> 00:40:04,240
if people do.
544
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:07,600
They are the awakening of us,
545
00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:09,800
the awakening of the human soul.
546
00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:16,480
The dancing, the ritual,
the culture, the knowledge,
547
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,280
fire and stone,
bow and arrow,
548
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:23,360
medicine and poison.
549
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:25,960
Technology starts
developing here.
550
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,280
This is us.
551
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:36,200
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
552
00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:55,920
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
553
00:40:57,240 --> 00:41:00,800
[singing in Ju/'hoansi]
554
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:13,360
[singing in Ju/'hoansi]
555
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:24,600
[singing in Ju/'hoansi]
556
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,400
[singing in Ju/'hoansi]
557
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:39,880
[Werner] The society of
the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen is
558
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:41,960
completely egalitarian.
559
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:47,280
Xui has hunted a kudu,
but he, the provider,
560
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:49,080
does not brag about it.
561
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:53,360
He rather puts himself down
and belittles his haul.
562
00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:00,240
The women make a
show of ignoring him.
563
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,880
The boy here, Xui's son,
will distribute the meat.
564
00:42:16,240 --> 00:42:20,000
[wood scraping wood]
565
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:28,720
Life here is in
many ways ancestral,
566
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:33,400
although the San Bushmen
use cell phones with ease.
567
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,800
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
568
00:42:57,720 --> 00:43:00,320
[Werner] But I recognize myself.
569
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:04,080
Having a good talk with your
son at the end of a day,
570
00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:10,720
getting up in the morning
without fixed plans or duties.
571
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:19,280
Time does not seem to occur.
572
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:47,840
This elder of Nhoma village
spends much of his day fixing
573
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:49,800
his musical instrument.
574
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:55,520
I know I should not
romanticize this, but I feel,
575
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:57,880
surrounded by chickens,
576
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:00,800
it cannot get any
better than this.
577
00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:11,040
[humming quietly]
578
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:26,360
[humming quietly]
579
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:39,760
- Hi.
- How's it going?
580
00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:42,680
[Werner] Our three
Namibian trackers are spread out
581
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:44,360
in different villages.
582
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:47,360
For scientific support,
583
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:50,160
a visitor arrives
in Xui's village.
584
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:56,600
This is Jordana Meyer, a
specialist in DNA biodiversity.
585
00:44:57,440 --> 00:44:59,440
She's come here to
give training to the
586
00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:01,120
team of trackers.
587
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:06,320
{\an8}- So we want to get
those outer cells,
588
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:10,400
{\an8}the outer DNA that's left
behind from the elephant.
589
00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:11,720
{\an8}And we swab,
590
00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:14,040
you might know from COVID,
the little swab.
591
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:15,800
- Mm-hmm.
- I'll show you in the field
592
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:17,560
now when we find
some elephant dung.
593
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:20,200
- Mm-hmm.
- But we'll swab the outside.
594
00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:23,400
And then we put that into
this small vial like this.
595
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:28,360
And, again, same fluid,
liquid that preserves the DNA.
596
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:32,800
And then that will tell
us if this elephant is
597
00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:35,440
maybe from Angola.
598
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:37,360
[laughter]
599
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:39,440
[overlapping chatter]
600
00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:40,760
- Yeah.
601
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:44,320
- We might be
testing these darts.
602
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:47,800
And what this is doing is
taking a tiny piece of tissue
603
00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:49,920
from the elephant.
604
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:51,000
[Xui] Mm-hmm.
605
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,960
- Hopefully, and then we
will take that little piece,
606
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:55,920
and we'll put it into
here to preserve.
607
00:45:56,400 --> 00:45:58,560
[Werner] This device
appears promising...
608
00:45:58,640 --> 00:45:59,920
- Bull's-eye.
609
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:02,240
[Werner] ...but later in
the Angolan highlands,
610
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:03,760
it will prove useless.
611
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:10,280
The team now ventures
out to find a dung sample of
612
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:12,280
the local elephant population.
613
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:15,640
[Jordana] We're
collecting two things.
614
00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:18,760
One is going to be
from the inside.
615
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:21,440
And we want it from the inside
because it's not contaminated.
616
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:23,320
Like we did yesterday,
617
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:26,040
I'm going to have one
person hold this for me.
618
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:28,000
- Ah.
- Take the lid off.
619
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:29,360
Hold it.
620
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:32,080
I'm going to break it in
and then put it back on.
621
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:33,600
This is called DNA Shield.
622
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:35,800
It's a preservative
for the DNA,
623
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:39,120
so that once it's in there,
it's actually very stable.
624
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:41,160
Okay?
625
00:46:41,240 --> 00:46:42,480
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
626
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,080
- Until it looks
something like this, okay?
627
00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:46,400
So everybody can see?
628
00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:47,800
- Mm-hmm.
- Quite dirty.
629
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:49,160
Get it quite poopy.
630
00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:51,000
All right, then we open.
631
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:55,240
And then we very carefully,
there's a breakpoint on here.
632
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:58,000
And it just breaks
off by itself, okay?
633
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:00,400
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
634
00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:05,120
[Jordana] But this is
what the app will look like.
635
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:08,800
And then we can go
through recording all of
636
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:10,160
the information here.
637
00:47:10,240 --> 00:47:11,960
[speaking in Portuguese]
638
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:15,280
- Yes, please.
- See how that goes.
639
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:20,160
Oh, you did it already.
640
00:47:20,240 --> 00:47:21,920
- Yeah.
- All right.
641
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:30,360
- Why are we doing this?
642
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:36,000
We looked for the ghost
elephants and failed.
643
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:38,960
Helicopters, camera traps,
hundreds of them.
644
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:42,920
Acoustic sensors
listening for them.
645
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:44,080
Still never seen one.
646
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:46,120
We've got 62 photographs now.
647
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:49,680
Took us seven years to
get the first photograph.
648
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,920
We're here seeking the help of
the Ju/’hoansi master trackers,
649
00:48:05,720 --> 00:48:07,760
Xui, Xui Dawid, Kobus,
650
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:11,760
three of the last
master trackers alive,
651
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:14,080
the last people that
can identify an elephant
652
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:19,360
individually by its footprints,
that can read this landscape
653
00:48:19,720 --> 00:48:21,600
and the sands up in Angola.
654
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:23,720
The sands in the highlands,
those are Kalahari sands,
655
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:25,080
same as these.
656
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:26,920
They can read them
like a newspaper.
657
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:32,120
And it's with them, this year,
over the next six weeks,
658
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:36,840
two months that we are
going to see a ghost elephant,
659
00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:38,440
a giant elephant,
660
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:42,080
and the legendary elephants
the Luchaze hunters talk about
661
00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:44,520
in the remotest valleys
of the Source of Life,
662
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:47,440
the Lisima lya Mwono,
663
00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:50,040
with these Ju/’hoansi
master trackers.
664
00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:53,120
That's what we're doing here.
665
00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:14,840
[♪ inspirational music playing]
666
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:29,680
[♪ inspirational music playing]
667
00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:45,680
[♪ inspirational music playing]
668
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:49,360
- I'm going to Angola,
and everyone say it's good.
669
00:49:50,080 --> 00:49:51,920
And everyone is happy.
670
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:55,600
My wife she is not say
goodbye when you go to Angola.
671
00:49:56,320 --> 00:50:00,760
Just work nice, and I will
see you when you come back.
672
00:50:02,160 --> 00:50:06,560
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
673
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:19,320
[♪ inspirational music playing]
674
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:36,440
[Werner] In Nhoma,
the village of Kobus,
675
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:39,840
Angolan trackers
of the Luchaze tribe
676
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:41,560
join the expedition.
677
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:46,120
They will play an
important role from now on
678
00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:48,240
as guides in their homeland,
679
00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:51,560
in the highlands where
the ghost elephants hide.
680
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:54,000
[Steve] We're with the Angolans.
681
00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:55,080
We will be very safe.
682
00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:56,840
- Yeah.
683
00:50:56,920 --> 00:51:00,760
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
684
00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:06,120
[Steve] We are going
to Angola today, and, um,
685
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:10,640
so we will be saying goodbye.
686
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:14,920
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
687
00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:23,000
[Werner] The village chief,
688
00:51:23,080 --> 00:51:26,800
here to the left of Kobus,
gives permission and his
689
00:51:26,880 --> 00:51:28,960
blessing for Kobus to leave.
690
00:51:30,480 --> 00:51:34,240
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
691
00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:43,840
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
692
00:51:55,040 --> 00:52:01,560
[singing in foreign language]
693
00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:12,280
[Werner] For Xui
and the San trackers,
694
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:14,960
this is a big unknown now.
695
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:21,200
The presence of the Angolan
hunters eases the uncertainty
696
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:25,720
for Kobus and Xui Dawid as
they enter terra incognita.
697
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:31,640
The border of Angola marks
the outer limit of their world.
698
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:39,360
[singing in foreign language]
699
00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:55,280
[singing in foreign language]
700
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:11,480
The expedition now enters
an area that used to be a
701
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:15,760
battlefield in the
Angolan Civil War that raged
702
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:17,600
for 27 years.
703
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:32,200
[singing in foreign language]
704
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:49,080
[singing in foreign language]
705
00:54:12,920 --> 00:54:16,720
[singing in foreign language]
706
00:54:26,200 --> 00:54:33,160
[singing in foreign language]
707
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:47,240
In the town of Kuito,
708
00:54:47,320 --> 00:54:51,800
Steve Boyes meets a convoy
of the foundation Lisima,
709
00:54:52,720 --> 00:54:57,120
an NGO that he established
for long-term conservation
710
00:54:57,200 --> 00:54:58,880
in Angola.
711
00:55:03,080 --> 00:55:06,880
Here, the convoy swells
to nine vehicles,
712
00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:10,880
two support trucks with
armor plating for land mines,
713
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:16,680
and 12 motorbikes, all
in logistical support of
714
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:19,400
the search camp
they will establish.
715
00:55:20,480 --> 00:55:25,720
[speaking in Luchaze]
716
00:55:41,320 --> 00:55:45,760
[singing in foreign language]
717
00:55:55,920 --> 00:56:01,280
[singing in foreign language]
718
00:56:11,240 --> 00:56:16,800
[singing in foreign language]
719
00:56:26,240 --> 00:56:32,880
[singing in foreign language]
720
00:56:42,280 --> 00:56:43,920
[singing in foreign language]
721
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:47,920
[Werner] The convoy is
headed for the town of Cangamba
722
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:51,760
to have an audience with
the king of the Nkangala.
723
00:56:54,680 --> 00:56:56,240
[speaking in Luchaze]
724
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:58,240
[Werner] The king's
spirit meets them.
725
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:10,200
{\an8}[Steve] Um, I request permission
to approach the king to
726
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:11,640
{\an8}give him two gifts.
727
00:57:13,240 --> 00:57:15,320
I'd like to show
you two pictures,
728
00:57:16,120 --> 00:57:19,200
one of an elephant that
is in Washington, D.C.,
729
00:57:19,280 --> 00:57:21,040
capital of the United States,
730
00:57:21,640 --> 00:57:23,920
and the skull of
the elephant on the right
731
00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:26,400
that is held there.
732
00:57:27,040 --> 00:57:30,680
We believe that the last
hiding place for the descendants
733
00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:33,160
of this elephant
is in this area.
734
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:37,600
And we saw the
trails for bull elephants,
735
00:57:37,680 --> 00:57:39,760
one very big one.
736
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:42,360
And that is the
reason we are here,
737
00:57:42,440 --> 00:57:44,760
to understand this animal.
738
00:57:46,120 --> 00:57:49,600
[speaking in Luchaze]
739
00:58:06,240 --> 00:58:08,360
[Steve] We would request
your assistance in making this
740
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:10,760
onto an arrow much bigger,
741
00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:14,440
a much bigger bow to be far
away from the elephants.
742
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:18,160
And I can bring this to
you now so that you can see
743
00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:21,120
that it is not an arrowhead.
744
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:23,280
It is simply something
that will go this far into
745
00:58:23,360 --> 00:58:25,920
the skin and fall out.
746
00:58:26,480 --> 00:58:30,920
[speaking in Luchaze]
747
00:58:34,600 --> 00:58:35,960
[Kerllen] Put it
right there in the front.
748
00:58:36,040 --> 00:58:37,680
He'll pick it up
and have a look.
749
00:58:37,760 --> 00:58:39,200
[Steve] Okay.
750
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:47,280
[speaking in Luchaze]
751
00:58:52,320 --> 00:58:54,480
[speaking in Luchaze]
752
00:58:58,360 --> 00:59:00,680
[speaking in Luchaze]
753
00:59:08,440 --> 00:59:13,200
[speaking in Luchaze]
754
00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:24,320
[speaking in Luchaze]
755
00:59:32,160 --> 00:59:36,520
[speaking in Luchaze]
756
00:59:36,600 --> 00:59:39,640
- It's a special knife
inherited by the Luchaze with
757
00:59:39,720 --> 00:59:41,920
geometry that they've created.
758
00:59:42,360 --> 00:59:46,040
This is the same as that
amulet that he has in his hand.
759
00:59:46,360 --> 00:59:48,960
It's for protection,
not physical protection,
760
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:51,000
but spiritual protection.
761
00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:56,360
And he's asking if you could,
in the world that you travel,
762
00:59:56,440 --> 01:00:02,000
see if it's possible, to
find something like that,
763
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:05,520
but maybe double the size.
764
01:00:06,200 --> 01:00:07,160
[Steve] Mm-hmm.
765
01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:10,240
[Kerllen] And he would
take that as a symbol
766
01:00:10,320 --> 01:00:12,080
of your respect.
767
01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:28,760
[singing in foreign language]
768
01:00:34,360 --> 01:00:38,600
[Werner] It is seven hard
days of driving from Namibia
769
01:00:38,680 --> 01:00:40,400
to the Angolan highlands.
770
01:00:42,520 --> 01:00:46,320
There are no roads, no
bridges in a landscape,
771
01:00:46,680 --> 01:00:49,600
we have to remember,
the size of England.
772
01:00:50,720 --> 01:00:53,880
The four-wheel drives
have to be left behind.
773
01:01:09,360 --> 01:01:16,280
[singing in foreign language]
774
01:01:26,240 --> 01:01:30,120
[overlapping chatter]
775
01:01:49,960 --> 01:01:55,960
[singing in foreign language]
776
01:02:05,240 --> 01:02:10,080
[singing in foreign language]
777
01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:27,920
It is about 100 miles
now on motorbikes,
778
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:30,640
with more river
crossings to come.
779
01:02:48,600 --> 01:02:55,120
[singing in foreign language]
780
01:03:19,520 --> 01:03:22,880
{\an8}The locals have encountered
crocodiles at this river.
781
01:03:24,080 --> 01:03:26,440
Steve is apprehensive,
782
01:03:26,520 --> 01:03:29,440
but he has been assured
crocodiles would only
783
01:03:29,520 --> 01:03:31,320
come after nightfall.
784
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:48,200
We are following the
tracks of Luchaze tribesmen
785
01:03:48,960 --> 01:03:52,680
who spend the dry season
here hunting antelopes
786
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:54,640
for meat and skins.
787
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:15,000
[singing in foreign language]
788
01:04:17,880 --> 01:04:20,320
A base camp is set up.
789
01:04:20,400 --> 01:04:23,840
Our Namibian trackers
have settled in well with
790
01:04:23,920 --> 01:04:25,760
the Luchaze tribesmen.
791
01:04:26,480 --> 01:04:27,800
- Oh, man.
792
01:04:28,480 --> 01:04:31,720
[Werner] The motorcycles
have to stay behind now in
793
01:04:31,800 --> 01:04:34,120
order not to disturb
the elephants.
794
01:04:35,960 --> 01:04:39,520
The next 30 miles
must be on foot.
795
01:04:50,560 --> 01:04:53,440
There are first
unmistakable signs of the
796
01:04:53,520 --> 01:04:55,880
presence of elephants.
797
01:04:55,960 --> 01:04:57,120
[speaking in Luchaze]
798
01:04:57,200 --> 01:04:58,560
[Steve] Yeah, yeah.
799
01:04:58,640 --> 01:05:00,960
[Werner] The tracks
in the sand are fresh.
800
01:05:08,640 --> 01:05:10,560
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
801
01:05:10,640 --> 01:05:14,240
[Werner] Xui has spotted the
track of an individual elephant.
802
01:05:18,880 --> 01:05:21,560
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
803
01:05:38,560 --> 01:05:41,640
[Werner] He finds
a tree with recent markings.
804
01:05:43,640 --> 01:05:47,520
The elephant has poked
the bark with his tusk and
805
01:05:47,600 --> 01:05:49,520
then rubbed his
flank against it.
806
01:06:06,360 --> 01:06:09,600
{\an8}Elias Ngunga,
the Luchaze tracker,
807
01:06:10,080 --> 01:06:12,000
{\an8}has found a very
fresh dung sample.
808
01:06:13,600 --> 01:06:15,640
[Steve] Let's get it
from all over here.
809
01:06:16,840 --> 01:06:18,560
Passes out the rectum.
810
01:06:20,040 --> 01:06:21,880
And look at that.
811
01:06:21,960 --> 01:06:23,720
But we are catching up with him.
812
01:06:24,200 --> 01:06:26,920
[Werner] There is a high
chance to get a complete
813
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:30,440
DNA sequence
from the mucus on it.
814
01:06:31,560 --> 01:06:33,640
[Steve] Mainly wood, just wood.
815
01:06:33,960 --> 01:06:37,200
[Werner] Steve also collects
a sample of the contents
816
01:06:37,280 --> 01:06:40,480
of the dung,
mostly roots and bark.
817
01:06:41,160 --> 01:06:44,520
This will yield
insight into the habitat of
818
01:06:44,600 --> 01:06:46,640
the ghost elephants.
819
01:06:48,920 --> 01:06:52,040
Steve, the scientist,
has to be quick.
820
01:06:52,960 --> 01:06:56,680
He has to share his
treasure with dung beetles,
821
01:06:56,760 --> 01:06:58,760
who appear almost instantly.
822
01:07:08,120 --> 01:07:11,560
The beetle, in turn, has
to compete with flies.
823
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:19,960
The scarabaeus beetle was
sacred to the ancient Egyptians.
824
01:07:20,960 --> 01:07:25,960
It had the task of rolling
the sun across the sky.
825
01:07:34,600 --> 01:07:38,000
The camp closest to
the ghost elephants is
826
01:07:38,080 --> 01:07:40,800
used by Luchaze hunters,
827
01:07:41,440 --> 01:07:45,840
smoking fires and drying
meat of antelopes everywhere.
828
01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:54,400
The arrowhead for collecting
a sample of the skin of
829
01:07:54,480 --> 01:07:57,320
a ghost elephant is
being made ready.
830
01:07:59,880 --> 01:08:03,480
[speaking in Luchaze]
831
01:08:09,640 --> 01:08:14,440
[speaking in Luchaze]
832
01:08:27,720 --> 01:08:30,080
[speaking in Luchaze]
833
01:08:32,360 --> 01:08:34,600
{\an8}[Werner] This
is Antonio Luhoke,
834
01:08:34,680 --> 01:08:38,240
{\an8}the Luchaze hunter who
has accompanied Steve on
835
01:08:38,320 --> 01:08:40,480
many prior expeditions.
836
01:08:41,440 --> 01:08:46,000
[speaking in Luchaze]
837
01:08:50,560 --> 01:08:52,880
[speaking in Luchaze]
838
01:08:55,000 --> 01:08:56,160
[whistling]
839
01:09:03,320 --> 01:09:07,320
[Werner] Next day,
traces of a very, very large
840
01:09:07,400 --> 01:09:09,080
elephant were found.
841
01:09:25,080 --> 01:09:26,880
[Steve] This one here.
Here, try that one.
842
01:09:26,960 --> 01:09:33,080
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
843
01:09:35,000 --> 01:09:37,040
[Steve] That's
the highest point.
844
01:09:37,600 --> 01:09:39,200
[Xui] Yes.
845
01:09:39,280 --> 01:09:41,240
[Steve] Wow.
There's a big rubbing.
846
01:09:43,560 --> 01:09:45,240
Is that the shoulder height?
847
01:09:45,320 --> 01:09:47,440
[speaking Portuguese]
848
01:09:50,800 --> 01:09:53,640
[Steve] So that's,
nine, ten foot.
849
01:09:53,720 --> 01:09:55,400
That's like a big
elephant in the Okavango,
850
01:09:55,480 --> 01:09:58,080
like that one we saw.
851
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:02,280
But it's the top of
the shoulder or here?
852
01:10:02,360 --> 01:10:04,000
[speaking Portuguese]
853
01:10:04,080 --> 01:10:05,320
- Under?
- Mm.
854
01:10:05,400 --> 01:10:06,760
- So maybe one more foot.
855
01:10:06,840 --> 01:10:08,120
[speaking Portuguese]
856
01:10:08,200 --> 01:10:12,400
- And, is it a,
a male or a female?
857
01:10:13,640 --> 01:10:15,400
[speaking Portuguese]
858
01:10:18,920 --> 01:10:21,000
- It must be a male, a bull.
859
01:10:22,320 --> 01:10:25,520
- They believe it's
a herd of 16 elephants.
860
01:10:25,600 --> 01:10:28,600
And there's several big
males walking in front.
861
01:10:28,680 --> 01:10:34,400
One in front and three or
four on the sides protect them.
862
01:10:34,480 --> 01:10:38,000
And there's one or two that
have broken their tusks already.
863
01:10:38,080 --> 01:10:39,280
[Steve] Mm.
864
01:10:39,360 --> 01:10:41,200
[Kerllen] And he believes
this is one of the four
865
01:10:41,280 --> 01:10:42,960
that are on the side,
866
01:10:43,040 --> 01:10:45,320
paving the way
for the herd to come.
867
01:10:45,960 --> 01:10:49,680
- They were talking about,
over here, is that height.
868
01:10:50,080 --> 01:10:52,000
And the shoulder.
869
01:10:52,080 --> 01:10:53,880
- Shoulder.
- There.
870
01:10:53,960 --> 01:10:56,800
- Yeah.
- And he's like that.
871
01:10:57,520 --> 01:10:58,960
- Oh.
872
01:11:02,520 --> 01:11:03,640
[Steve] It's a good 11-foot.
873
01:11:03,720 --> 01:11:06,520
I mean, it's bigger than
what we have in Botswana.
874
01:11:06,960 --> 01:11:08,360
[Kerllen] What's
standard big in Botswana?
875
01:11:08,440 --> 01:11:10,600
- Ten-foot standard.
You don't get bigger.
876
01:11:10,680 --> 01:11:13,080
And that's an eight-ton,
seven-ton elephant.
877
01:11:13,160 --> 01:11:15,920
The Fenykovi was 13 tons.
878
01:11:16,000 --> 01:11:18,400
So, like, you're
talking about a, yeah.
879
01:11:19,200 --> 01:11:20,520
[Kerllen] Nine to ten?
880
01:11:20,960 --> 01:11:23,480
- Yeah, a nine to
ten-ton elephant, yeah.
881
01:11:25,640 --> 01:11:29,320
[Werner] Xui and Xui Dawid
discover something else
882
01:11:29,400 --> 01:11:31,360
overlooked by everyone.
883
01:11:39,960 --> 01:11:44,800
This elephant hair will become
part of the forensic evidence.
884
01:11:52,400 --> 01:11:56,920
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
885
01:12:00,720 --> 01:12:03,480
[Werner] Xui explains
here how the elephant has
886
01:12:03,560 --> 01:12:05,800
moved into the wet peatland.
887
01:12:10,120 --> 01:12:12,040
- He obviously heard us coming.
888
01:12:13,080 --> 01:12:16,840
So it's, since the big rain,
after the small rain,
889
01:12:17,520 --> 01:12:18,560
he walked through here,
890
01:12:18,640 --> 01:12:20,240
and he actually
ran through here.
891
01:12:20,320 --> 01:12:21,760
See this footprint?
892
01:12:21,840 --> 01:12:23,400
And ran, not
along the channel,
893
01:12:23,480 --> 01:12:25,160
straight to where Tony is there.
894
01:12:25,240 --> 01:12:27,000
We've got two cameras,
so I think the first one
895
01:12:27,080 --> 01:12:29,040
will go there.
896
01:12:31,240 --> 01:12:32,760
Okay.
897
01:12:36,840 --> 01:12:38,440
Here or.
898
01:12:38,760 --> 01:12:41,880
[Werner] As sophisticated
as this contraption is,
899
01:12:42,600 --> 01:12:45,320
it never captured any
of the ghost elephants.
900
01:12:46,880 --> 01:12:50,080
In the end, the
whole thing will come down
901
01:12:50,160 --> 01:12:52,840
to hand-held cell phones.
902
01:13:16,760 --> 01:13:20,640
[♪ pensive music playing]
903
01:13:26,200 --> 01:13:29,720
Among the companions of
the night is this spider.
904
01:13:31,000 --> 01:13:32,560
It is poisonous,
905
01:13:32,640 --> 01:13:36,240
and the young teeming on
its back are equally poisonous.
906
01:14:05,520 --> 01:14:09,640
The spider was weird enough,
but the next morning,
907
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:13,160
I believed I was still
dreaming of demons.
908
01:14:39,920 --> 01:14:45,400
[♪ mystical music playing]
909
01:14:55,440 --> 01:14:58,280
- No, it's been, we,
in the beginning,
910
01:14:58,360 --> 01:15:00,480
six days behind him.
911
01:15:00,560 --> 01:15:03,480
One day behind
the breeding herd.
912
01:15:04,160 --> 01:15:06,200
Yesterday, we were right
behind the breeding herd,
913
01:15:06,280 --> 01:15:07,360
literally chasing them.
914
01:15:07,440 --> 01:15:08,720
They're smelling
us with the wind.
915
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:10,600
That's what the team's done,
go around.
916
01:15:10,680 --> 01:15:13,760
Now we are, they're
probably with them.
917
01:15:13,840 --> 01:15:14,760
And we're one hour,
918
01:15:14,840 --> 01:15:16,320
two hours,
three hours behind this guy.
919
01:15:16,400 --> 01:15:17,920
So we're catching up.
920
01:15:19,880 --> 01:15:22,400
[Werner] But then,
unexpected luck would strike.
921
01:15:23,320 --> 01:15:26,360
Each morning, separate
teams would venture out.
922
01:15:27,320 --> 01:15:30,080
Here, Elias and António.
923
01:15:30,160 --> 01:15:33,640
The camera filmed them
only leaving the camp and
924
01:15:33,720 --> 01:15:36,200
then joined Steve and Kerllen.
925
01:15:36,760 --> 01:15:38,520
- I think it was in his pocket.
926
01:15:46,120 --> 01:15:48,640
[Werner] Suddenly, Elias
and António spot the biggest
927
01:15:48,720 --> 01:15:50,480
of all ghost elephants,
928
01:15:51,520 --> 01:15:54,240
the vague gray shape
between the leaves.
929
01:15:55,480 --> 01:15:59,760
António only has time to
start his cell phone camera.
930
01:15:59,840 --> 01:16:02,880
And then he scrambles to
find a better position.
931
01:16:12,560 --> 01:16:16,160
And now, for seconds only,
we catch a glimpse.
932
01:16:19,800 --> 01:16:22,800
Then the elephant
bull is going away.
933
01:16:26,880 --> 01:16:28,080
[Steve] They took a picture?
934
01:16:28,160 --> 01:16:29,640
[Kerllen] They took a picture.
935
01:16:29,720 --> 01:16:30,960
[Steve] May I see the picture?
936
01:16:34,960 --> 01:16:36,560
[Werner] Was this it?
937
01:16:36,960 --> 01:16:39,880
Was this worth the
ten-year search and
938
01:16:39,960 --> 01:16:42,160
the arduous expedition?
939
01:16:43,040 --> 01:16:45,000
Was this the proof?
940
01:16:45,400 --> 01:16:47,320
Was this the truth?
941
01:16:47,920 --> 01:16:51,840
In a way, yes, but the
accountant's truth at best.
942
01:16:53,400 --> 01:16:56,440
Yes, the ghost elephants exist.
943
01:16:56,520 --> 01:17:00,080
We have the forensic proof
because one of them was
944
01:17:00,160 --> 01:17:04,000
captured on an otherwise
disappointing video.
945
01:17:09,760 --> 01:17:11,480
[speaking Portuguese]
946
01:17:11,560 --> 01:17:12,800
[Steve] This one?
947
01:17:12,880 --> 01:17:14,440
[speaking Portuguese]
948
01:17:14,520 --> 01:17:16,840
[Werner] It was certainly
the biggest elephant bull.
949
01:17:16,920 --> 01:17:21,000
Its shoulder height indicates
that this is the largest known
950
01:17:21,080 --> 01:17:25,880
elephant in Africa and hence,
the largest land mammal
951
01:17:25,960 --> 01:17:27,560
on our planet.
952
01:17:30,560 --> 01:17:34,480
[singing in Luchaze]
953
01:17:39,440 --> 01:17:41,600
[Werner] Two days' rest.
954
01:17:41,680 --> 01:17:45,960
[singing in Luchaze]
955
01:17:56,520 --> 01:18:00,120
[singing in Ju/'hoansi]
956
01:18:10,880 --> 01:18:15,400
[singing in Ju/'hoansi]
957
01:18:15,480 --> 01:18:18,040
[Werner] And then
Steve will get lucky.
958
01:18:19,080 --> 01:18:21,040
- Just saying to
Gary and Xui that we heard
959
01:18:21,120 --> 01:18:23,920
an elephant up
over this ridge here.
960
01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:25,680
Just gonna go look if
we can see the tracks,
961
01:18:25,760 --> 01:18:27,200
which one it was.
962
01:18:43,120 --> 01:18:48,720
[♪ mysterious music playing]
963
01:18:49,880 --> 01:18:52,360
[Werner] After less
than two hours' march,
964
01:18:52,440 --> 01:18:55,280
the San trackers catch a
glimpse of an elephant.
965
01:19:21,320 --> 01:19:24,440
Our professional camera
stayed slightly behind,
966
01:19:24,840 --> 01:19:28,200
and, thus, what we
see was shot by Steve on
967
01:19:28,280 --> 01:19:29,880
his cell phone.
968
01:19:49,840 --> 01:19:55,120
[♪ mysterious music playing]
969
01:20:01,320 --> 01:20:04,040
Xui cautiously shoots his arrow.
970
01:20:21,080 --> 01:20:24,480
[♪ mysterious music playing]
971
01:20:24,880 --> 01:20:27,760
They retrieve the tip of
the arrow that was meant
972
01:20:27,840 --> 01:20:30,240
to collect the DNA sample.
973
01:20:31,080 --> 01:20:33,200
[Steve] Ah. Oh.
974
01:20:35,960 --> 01:20:38,800
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
975
01:20:44,760 --> 01:20:45,880
- I couldn't see it properly.
976
01:20:45,960 --> 01:20:49,320
I think it, I think it bounced
off the elephant or missed it.
977
01:20:50,080 --> 01:20:52,720
But we got, when it hit
the ground, certainly,
978
01:20:52,800 --> 01:20:54,320
it took some sand in.
979
01:20:54,400 --> 01:20:56,160
But the elephant is right here.
980
01:20:56,920 --> 01:20:58,040
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
981
01:20:58,120 --> 01:20:59,960
- I think you said it
came off the rump. Yeah.
982
01:21:00,040 --> 01:21:01,600
- Yeah.
983
01:21:01,680 --> 01:21:04,040
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
984
01:21:05,360 --> 01:21:07,080
[Steve] How's the elephant now?
985
01:21:07,160 --> 01:21:08,560
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
986
01:21:08,640 --> 01:21:09,880
[Werner] It made
the elephant flee,
987
01:21:09,960 --> 01:21:12,120
and so the whole idea
with the arrow was given
988
01:21:12,200 --> 01:21:13,680
up for good.
989
01:21:15,160 --> 01:21:16,840
[Steve] How it looks.
990
01:21:16,920 --> 01:21:18,640
[Werner] But Steve
got his reward.
991
01:21:19,200 --> 01:21:20,960
He got his clean shot.
992
01:21:24,040 --> 01:21:26,200
[Steve] This is the.
993
01:21:27,000 --> 01:21:28,680
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
994
01:21:40,760 --> 01:21:42,640
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
995
01:21:42,720 --> 01:21:45,160
- Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve!
996
01:21:45,240 --> 01:21:48,600
[Werner] Xui, still excited,
gives an account of how he
997
01:21:48,680 --> 01:21:51,240
alerted Steve to the elephant.
998
01:21:51,920 --> 01:21:56,840
[speaking in Ju/'hoansi]
999
01:21:59,080 --> 01:22:02,320
[Werner] After the
first excitement had subsided,
1000
01:22:02,400 --> 01:22:05,880
Steve was again confronted
with a question whether
1001
01:22:05,960 --> 01:22:08,520
it might have been
better never to have
1002
01:22:08,600 --> 01:22:10,720
encountered the ghost elephants.
1003
01:22:11,960 --> 01:22:15,040
Were they not possibly
better as a rainbow,
1004
01:22:15,120 --> 01:22:17,080
as a mirage in the sky?
1005
01:22:18,080 --> 01:22:22,160
And yet, he did encounter
one of them for real.
1006
01:22:23,040 --> 01:22:25,920
This reality was undeniable.
1007
01:22:26,000 --> 01:22:29,360
Steve would have to
live with his success.
1008
01:22:34,280 --> 01:22:36,120
- This is the one by himself.
1009
01:22:37,240 --> 01:22:39,760
In the water tower,
in this place.
1010
01:22:43,680 --> 01:22:46,960
[Werner] And another
reality set in, the rain.
1011
01:22:48,520 --> 01:22:52,480
The expedition would have to
return before the peatlands and
1012
01:22:52,560 --> 01:22:55,520
rivers would become impassable.
1013
01:22:56,600 --> 01:22:58,520
[Steve] The Source of Life, huh?
1014
01:23:05,000 --> 01:23:10,880
[singing in foreign language]
1015
01:23:19,200 --> 01:23:21,440
[thunder]
1016
01:23:28,000 --> 01:23:32,120
[Werner] Now the time had come
to return and secure the loot,
1017
01:23:32,960 --> 01:23:36,440
the biological samples
of the ghost elephants.
1018
01:23:38,440 --> 01:23:42,400
The Smithsonian had given
permission to extract a DNA
1019
01:23:42,480 --> 01:23:47,400
sample from Henry in order to
compare it with Steve's samples.
1020
01:23:50,160 --> 01:23:52,840
- Now, where will we
be taking the sample from?
1021
01:23:53,560 --> 01:23:57,080
- I think we'll aim for
somewhere around here or in, uh,
1022
01:23:57,160 --> 01:23:58,760
{\an8}where the tusks are from.
1023
01:23:58,840 --> 01:24:00,160
{\an8}And I'll collect the samples,
1024
01:24:00,240 --> 01:24:02,160
{\an8}but I'll have to get
my team in to help.
1025
01:24:02,240 --> 01:24:05,320
{\an8}[Werner] Melissa Hawkins
was assigned to this task.
1026
01:24:05,840 --> 01:24:08,280
{\an8}- I'll stand back,
and thank you for doing this.
1027
01:24:08,760 --> 01:24:09,880
- Okay, great.
1028
01:24:11,720 --> 01:24:15,080
{\an8}[Werner] Mary Faith Flores
will assist her through
1029
01:24:15,160 --> 01:24:16,480
{\an8}the next steps.
1030
01:24:18,000 --> 01:24:20,280
At the base of
one of the molars,
1031
01:24:20,840 --> 01:24:23,760
she was able to
find tissue that,
1032
01:24:23,840 --> 01:24:26,120
even after 70 years,
1033
01:24:26,200 --> 01:24:28,680
was still fresh enough
to be promising.
1034
01:24:31,960 --> 01:24:35,480
The next procedures
have to be performed in a
1035
01:24:35,560 --> 01:24:38,560
completely sterile environment.
1036
01:24:40,080 --> 01:24:43,520
These here are Henry's
tissue samples.
1037
01:24:44,560 --> 01:24:48,200
Melissa and Mary will
extract the DNA here.
1038
01:24:52,800 --> 01:24:57,320
And now Steve delivers mucus
and dung samples from the ghost
1039
01:24:57,400 --> 01:25:02,080
elephants to Katherine Solari
of Stanford University.
1040
01:25:03,640 --> 01:25:06,360
In the background,
Dmitri Petrov,
1041
01:25:06,440 --> 01:25:10,200
the mastermind behind
Stanford's genomic programs.
1042
01:25:10,880 --> 01:25:13,440
- These samples are
literally out of the elephant,
1043
01:25:14,080 --> 01:25:15,520
just a few weeks ago.
1044
01:25:15,600 --> 01:25:20,000
Um, four of them, five of
them are from the actual
1045
01:25:20,080 --> 01:25:21,800
ghost elephant bull.
1046
01:25:22,520 --> 01:25:24,880
So I'm going to hand them over.
1047
01:25:25,400 --> 01:25:26,560
But you see, um,
1048
01:25:26,640 --> 01:25:29,880
this is one of the
ones from the bull itself.
1049
01:25:29,960 --> 01:25:31,320
- Perfect.
1050
01:25:31,400 --> 01:25:34,880
{\an8}We're just gonna bead-bash
it in order to open up all
1051
01:25:34,960 --> 01:25:37,000
{\an8}of the cells and release
all of the DNA so that we
1052
01:25:37,080 --> 01:25:38,400
{\an8}can see everything
that's in there,
1053
01:25:38,960 --> 01:25:40,040
what they're eating,
1054
01:25:40,120 --> 01:25:43,720
as well as samples from
the DNA of the elephant.
1055
01:25:48,440 --> 01:25:50,640
[machine whirring]
1056
01:25:54,160 --> 01:25:55,800
This is the sequencing machine.
1057
01:25:55,880 --> 01:25:57,760
And it's very
state-of-the-art,
1058
01:25:57,840 --> 01:25:59,800
worth well over a
million dollars.
1059
01:25:59,880 --> 01:26:02,360
- This is where our
ghost elephant samples will go?
1060
01:26:02,440 --> 01:26:03,400
- Yes, exactly.
1061
01:26:03,480 --> 01:26:04,680
This is where they'll end up.
1062
01:26:04,760 --> 01:26:08,080
They'll go through a number of
steps from what we saw earlier
1063
01:26:08,400 --> 01:26:11,280
to end up on here, but
this is where they end up and
1064
01:26:11,360 --> 01:26:12,640
where the data is generated.
1065
01:26:13,240 --> 01:26:17,320
And this machine creates
six billion sequencing reads.
1066
01:26:17,800 --> 01:26:19,320
[Steve] Six billion.
1067
01:26:19,400 --> 01:26:22,600
So 6,000 million DNA sequences.
1068
01:26:22,680 --> 01:26:24,040
- It's a lot of data.
- Yeah?
1069
01:26:24,120 --> 01:26:26,400
- So I have it
set up here to show you.
1070
01:26:26,480 --> 01:26:28,680
So, here, each line is a read.
1071
01:26:28,760 --> 01:26:30,080
This is 150.
1072
01:26:30,160 --> 01:26:33,080
- That's a lot of letters.
- Letters long. And then.
1073
01:26:33,160 --> 01:26:36,760
- So you're talking about
six billion of these lines?
1074
01:26:37,120 --> 01:26:38,280
- Six billion.
- Outputted by this machine.
1075
01:26:38,360 --> 01:26:40,440
- Exactly.
- From the elephant-dung samples.
1076
01:26:40,520 --> 01:26:42,880
- Exactly.
- This is mitochondrial?
1077
01:26:42,960 --> 01:26:45,200
- This is all DNA.
- All DNA?
1078
01:26:45,280 --> 01:26:46,640
It's just everything
that's in there?
1079
01:26:46,720 --> 01:26:48,760
And what are you going
to do with this data?
1080
01:26:48,840 --> 01:26:52,280
[Katherine] So this is an
example of that data a little
1081
01:26:52,360 --> 01:26:53,400
bit more processed.
1082
01:26:53,480 --> 01:26:55,800
So here it's all
aligned and mapped.
1083
01:26:55,880 --> 01:26:56,960
[Steve] Okay.
1084
01:26:57,040 --> 01:26:59,400
[Katherine] And here, you
can see this is one elephant.
1085
01:26:59,480 --> 01:27:00,880
This is a second elephant.
1086
01:27:00,960 --> 01:27:04,120
[Werner] To find the anomalies,
here marked in yellow,
1087
01:27:04,920 --> 01:27:06,560
would be impossible for humans.
1088
01:27:07,600 --> 01:27:12,800
From the billions of lines, a
computer program identifies the
1089
01:27:12,880 --> 01:27:14,920
differences between
two specimens.
1090
01:27:15,920 --> 01:27:18,880
[Katherine] Elephant down here
versus this elephant up here.
1091
01:27:19,720 --> 01:27:23,120
[Werner] This is the University
of California, Riverside.
1092
01:27:23,960 --> 01:27:27,800
The final step in Steve's
research will be done here to
1093
01:27:27,880 --> 01:27:32,480
compare the DNA of the
ghost elephant's with Henry
1094
01:27:32,560 --> 01:27:34,520
and other lineages.
1095
01:27:34,600 --> 01:27:35,800
- Steve, hi.
1096
01:27:35,880 --> 01:27:37,920
[Werner] This leads
him to Ellie Armstrong.
1097
01:27:38,000 --> 01:27:39,320
- Great to see you.
- Good to meet you in person.
1098
01:27:39,400 --> 01:27:40,880
- I brought
something out for you.
1099
01:27:40,960 --> 01:27:41,920
- Thank you very much.
1100
01:27:42,000 --> 01:27:43,120
- It's 'cause I knew
you were coming.
1101
01:27:43,200 --> 01:27:45,640
- Well, you knew that
we went to Smithsonian.
1102
01:27:45,720 --> 01:27:46,640
- Absolutely.
1103
01:27:46,720 --> 01:27:49,080
- And we dug around
just below the teeth,
1104
01:27:49,160 --> 01:27:50,440
took out some tissue.
1105
01:27:50,520 --> 01:27:55,280
And the objective is to compare
that to the fresh samples
1106
01:27:55,640 --> 01:27:57,200
I brought from Angola.
1107
01:27:57,280 --> 01:27:59,320
- What we'll be able to
do with these is really be
1108
01:27:59,400 --> 01:28:01,440
{\an8}able to trace the history
of these elephants.
1109
01:28:01,520 --> 01:28:03,200
{\an8}So, with the historic specimen,
1110
01:28:03,280 --> 01:28:05,160
{\an8}there are some things
that we know about it,
1111
01:28:05,240 --> 01:28:06,360
{\an8}like where it was collected,
1112
01:28:06,440 --> 01:28:07,800
{\an8}but there are some
things that we obviously
1113
01:28:07,880 --> 01:28:08,880
don't know about it,
1114
01:28:08,960 --> 01:28:10,440
especially in relation
to the elephants that you've
1115
01:28:10,520 --> 01:28:12,200
collected from Angola.
1116
01:28:12,280 --> 01:28:15,280
And so what we'll be able to
tell is what population this
1117
01:28:15,360 --> 01:28:16,600
elephant was from,
1118
01:28:16,680 --> 01:28:19,680
whether it was more
related to forest elephants
1119
01:28:19,760 --> 01:28:22,360
or other species of elephants,
or how different it is from the
1120
01:28:22,440 --> 01:28:23,840
elephants that we're
currently seeing.
1121
01:28:23,920 --> 01:28:25,840
- I've interacted with thousands
of elephants in my life.
1122
01:28:25,920 --> 01:28:26,960
- Mm-hmm.
1123
01:28:27,040 --> 01:28:28,240
- I've never seen
elephants like this.
1124
01:28:28,320 --> 01:28:29,960
They've got long legs.
They're very tall.
1125
01:28:30,040 --> 01:28:32,040
They've got small feet
compared to their size.
1126
01:28:32,120 --> 01:28:34,000
They live at altitude.
1127
01:28:34,080 --> 01:28:37,560
I mean, if you were to take
a savanna elephant nor a bush
1128
01:28:37,640 --> 01:28:40,160
elephant from the Okavango
Delta and put them up there,
1129
01:28:40,240 --> 01:28:41,520
they would not survive.
1130
01:28:41,600 --> 01:28:44,560
I mean, is it crazy to
think that they are, like a,
1131
01:28:44,640 --> 01:28:47,200
not a subspecies or, um.
1132
01:28:50,120 --> 01:28:52,400
- Yeah, they're.
- Something completely different?
1133
01:28:52,480 --> 01:28:55,760
- We'll be able to trace
that using the genetic DNA.
1134
01:28:55,840 --> 01:28:58,120
So we'll be able to understand
whether this is sort of a
1135
01:28:58,200 --> 01:29:01,480
lineage that has descended from
some of these historic lineages
1136
01:29:01,560 --> 01:29:03,760
that you've been able to sample
at the Smithsonian or whether
1137
01:29:03,840 --> 01:29:06,040
this is something that's
totally new and never
1138
01:29:06,120 --> 01:29:07,400
has been sampled.
1139
01:29:07,480 --> 01:29:09,720
And that's what's so great
with genetic sequencing.
1140
01:29:09,800 --> 01:29:12,480
You know, sometimes we get
species that we can't tell them
1141
01:29:12,560 --> 01:29:14,000
apart just by looking at them.
1142
01:29:14,080 --> 01:29:15,360
But once we look in the genome,
1143
01:29:15,440 --> 01:29:17,240
we know that
they're actually distinct.
1144
01:29:17,320 --> 01:29:18,520
When we sequence a genome,
1145
01:29:18,600 --> 01:29:20,360
we're sequencing about
three billion base pairs
1146
01:29:20,440 --> 01:29:21,360
of DNA.
1147
01:29:21,440 --> 01:29:23,520
And we have to put this into
supercomputers and then process
1148
01:29:23,600 --> 01:29:25,040
all of the data.
1149
01:29:25,120 --> 01:29:27,240
Um, so, usually, this
takes on the order of about
1150
01:29:27,320 --> 01:29:28,880
six months to a year.
1151
01:29:28,960 --> 01:29:31,280
Um, and that's because
we have to pull in all of
1152
01:29:31,360 --> 01:29:32,400
the genetic data
1153
01:29:32,480 --> 01:29:34,240
that's already been sequenced
for elephants so that we
1154
01:29:34,320 --> 01:29:37,400
contextualize the data
that you have brought back and
1155
01:29:37,480 --> 01:29:38,800
got for us.
1156
01:29:38,880 --> 01:29:40,480
The first time we do it,
it takes a long time.
1157
01:29:40,560 --> 01:29:42,080
But then the second and
the third time we do it,
1158
01:29:42,160 --> 01:29:43,760
it starts becoming very quick.
1159
01:29:45,000 --> 01:29:48,000
[Werner] Her findings,
long down the line,
1160
01:29:48,080 --> 01:29:50,680
will be published in
scientific journals.
1161
01:29:53,080 --> 01:29:56,960
I was puzzled by
the array of dead birds
1162
01:29:57,040 --> 01:29:58,720
for scientific research.
1163
01:29:59,720 --> 01:30:03,760
They appeared like Egyptian
mummies in eternal sleep.
1164
01:30:05,360 --> 01:30:08,760
But how can we keep
the dwindling diversity
1165
01:30:08,840 --> 01:30:10,920
of species alive?
1166
01:30:17,040 --> 01:30:22,600
[singing in foreign language]
1167
01:30:37,080 --> 01:30:42,160
[singing in foreign language]
1168
01:30:52,840 --> 01:30:57,640
[singing in foreign language]
1169
01:31:00,200 --> 01:31:04,600
Can the ghost elephants be
kept alive long into the future?
1170
01:31:05,840 --> 01:31:10,720
Policing their survival through
armed rangers has only slowed
1171
01:31:10,800 --> 01:31:14,280
down their dramatic
decline in numbers.
1172
01:31:15,960 --> 01:31:18,560
On his way back
from his expedition,
1173
01:31:18,640 --> 01:31:23,280
Steve had another fascinating
audience with a local king.
1174
01:31:24,440 --> 01:31:29,600
His deep-rooted traditions may
hold the key to the protection
1175
01:31:29,680 --> 01:31:32,520
and survival of the
ghost elephants.
1176
01:31:33,800 --> 01:31:35,600
Everything is formalized.
1177
01:31:36,680 --> 01:31:40,400
First, he grants
permission to hear the report
1178
01:31:40,480 --> 01:31:41,840
of the expedition.
1179
01:31:42,240 --> 01:31:45,400
[clapping rhythmically]
1180
01:31:45,480 --> 01:31:48,760
[speaking in Luchaze]
1181
01:31:49,080 --> 01:31:51,280
[Werner] One of the
king's own hunters,
1182
01:31:51,360 --> 01:31:53,720
who was part of
the expedition,
1183
01:31:53,800 --> 01:31:56,240
narrates the
events day by day.
1184
01:31:56,760 --> 01:32:01,160
[speaking in Luchaze]
1185
01:32:12,080 --> 01:32:17,080
[speaking in Luchaze]
1186
01:32:19,920 --> 01:32:22,200
[Werner] And now
the king speaks.
1187
01:32:22,280 --> 01:32:26,360
He reminds us of the elephants
by narrating the origin
1188
01:32:26,440 --> 01:32:28,280
myth of his people.
1189
01:32:28,960 --> 01:32:33,360
[speaking in Luchaze]
1190
01:32:40,680 --> 01:32:44,680
[Werner] Kerllen translates why
elephants belong to the tribe.
1191
01:32:45,720 --> 01:32:47,840
[Kerllen] When those
hunters went to hunt,
1192
01:32:48,400 --> 01:32:51,880
there was one small elephant
at the back of the herd.
1193
01:32:52,600 --> 01:32:55,960
This elephant, a small elephant
came to the Kwango River.
1194
01:32:56,440 --> 01:32:58,800
And as it got to the river,
1195
01:32:58,880 --> 01:33:03,040
it started taking off
his skin of elephant.
1196
01:33:04,000 --> 01:33:06,200
And as he took off the skin,
1197
01:33:06,280 --> 01:33:08,400
the hunter could see
that it was a woman.
1198
01:33:09,120 --> 01:33:12,720
And he helped her take off
all of the elephant skin.
1199
01:33:13,640 --> 01:33:14,760
And with the woman,
1200
01:33:14,840 --> 01:33:17,160
he came running all
the way to here,
1201
01:33:17,520 --> 01:33:19,400
the kingdom of the Nkangala.
1202
01:33:19,480 --> 01:33:21,960
He kept that woman as a wife.
1203
01:33:22,640 --> 01:33:24,880
They reproduced with that woman.
1204
01:33:24,960 --> 01:33:28,000
And that's why he's telling
you that the elephants are
1205
01:33:28,080 --> 01:33:29,800
part of the people.
1206
01:33:30,200 --> 01:33:33,280
So that's why you see
that when you ask for
1207
01:33:33,360 --> 01:33:37,200
permission to the king,
before we left,
1208
01:33:38,160 --> 01:33:40,880
because we asked permission,
he kneeled.
1209
01:33:40,960 --> 01:33:43,960
And he did the ritual to
connect to the ancestors,
1210
01:33:44,040 --> 01:33:45,800
asking permission.
1211
01:33:45,880 --> 01:33:48,240
And they allowed you
to see the elephant.
1212
01:33:48,320 --> 01:33:50,240
That's why you managed
to see the elephants.
1213
01:33:50,320 --> 01:33:54,240
Those elephants you will
not see if you do not ask
1214
01:33:54,320 --> 01:33:58,920
permission to the king and
the king to his ancestors.
1215
01:34:00,040 --> 01:34:01,440
- Okay.
1216
01:34:01,520 --> 01:34:03,800
[clapping]
1217
01:34:06,960 --> 01:34:11,800
[singing in foreign language]
1218
01:34:16,200 --> 01:34:20,360
[Werner] Is there hope in the
enduring power of African myth
1219
01:34:20,440 --> 01:34:23,720
that humans and elephants
belong together?
1220
01:34:26,640 --> 01:34:30,080
Will the landscape
enshroud the ghost elephants
1221
01:34:30,160 --> 01:34:32,400
for a long, long time?
1222
01:34:33,680 --> 01:34:35,800
Probably not.
1223
01:34:35,880 --> 01:34:40,000
But the power of traditions
will not easily fade away.
1224
01:34:44,680 --> 01:34:49,320
And what is striking is that
both Steve and the tribal
1225
01:34:49,400 --> 01:34:54,160
elders firmly believe that
if the elephants disappear,
1226
01:34:54,880 --> 01:34:59,080
this would be the harbinger
of our disappearance as well.
1227
01:35:01,240 --> 01:35:04,800
Life would go on but without us.
1228
01:35:06,560 --> 01:35:11,760
[singing in Ju/'hoansi]
1229
01:35:21,560 --> 01:35:25,240
[singing in Ju/'hoansi]
1230
01:35:35,280 --> 01:35:38,800
[singing in Ju/'hoansi]
1231
01:36:05,600 --> 01:36:09,480
[♪ somber music playing]
1232
01:36:27,320 --> 01:36:32,360
[♪ somber music playing]
1233
01:36:47,040 --> 01:36:51,520
[♪ somber music playing]
1234
01:38:11,160 --> 01:38:14,960
[♪ somber music playing]