(Bindi) Here at Wildlife Warriors we support a number of projects globally,
one being an all-female anti poaching unit inside the Balule Nature Reserve in South Africa.
This extraordinary group of women are known as The Black Mambas.
Growing up alongside Africa's iconic animals, the team have seen firsthand the devastation caused by poaching.
These women guard the front line and work tirelessly to protect wildlife and wild places.
It's been an honour for Mum, Robert, Chandler and I to spend time with the Black Mambas
both here at Australia Zoo and in South Africa.
We are proud that Wildlife Warriors covers the Black Mambas wages, so they can continue their lifesaving work.
(Leita) We are the wildlife defenders, since animals can't speak for themselves,
we are their voices. Since animals can't have a lawyer to protect them or speak for them,
we are the people who are doing that. So, what we are doing is like standing up for animals
that can't stand up for themselves, making sure that we protect them.
We risk our life to make sure that the animals are safe.
Basically, the Black Mambas are the eyes and ears of the reserve.
We do crime prevention, we do visual policing.
So we want people to know that the Black Mambas are here. We are patrolling.
We are making sure that Balule is a hard place for poachers to poach.
(Felicia) As Black Mambas we go to communities, we have primary schools that we are
teaching younger children about the environment and how to save nature.
We believe that when we teach the younger children about the environment,
and how to save the animals, we are grooming them to be better people.
That it's wrong to kill a rhino, it's wrong to kill animals.
We must conserve nature for our future generations.
(Leita) Working with the Irwins and the Wildlife Warriors was a good privilege,
and it has made us as the Black Mambas - to learn more from them.
And they've also came to learn more from us.
We've got so many rangers all over the world, but above all,
they choose to come and work with the Black Mambas, which has made us the special people.
And it has showed that the job that we are doing is a unique job.
Working with them has helped us a lot in knowing exactly what we are doing,
like protecting the animals. That's the same thing they're doing.
They're protecting the wildlife, supporting us with all the resources that we need.
It was such a great privilege to work with them because we -
- we're both speaking the same language in the case of protecting the wild animals.
And they motivated us and it made our family and our community to be proud of us.
That was quite good. We have learnt a lot from them. And meeting them,
working with them was quite a privilege to the Mambas.
All the support that we are getting from them. Those people are supporting the Black Mambas everyday.
(Felicia) When I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a conservationist.
For me, what's rewarding is when I go to sleep and I know that I've saved one animal.
Because these animals, we are here to save them. They don't have anyone to say -
- they don't have a voice. So we are here to protect them.
Knowing that I'm protecting the animals and I'm saving the life of the animals, it's very rewarding for me.
(Leita) It was a good privilege for myself and Felicia to visit Australia,
and meet with different women, that has motivated us and we have learnt a lot from them.
We have seen different animals there in Australia that we don't have in South Africa.
Also going there, representing the Black Mambas and representing the women of South Africa was quite a good privilege to us.
(Felicia) We were feeding animals, feeding giraffe, feeding rhinos and koalas, the lemurs,
which we don't do here because we are in the natural habitat of the reserve.
So to go to Australia Zoo and feed the animals
and see the animals happy, it was much fulfilling.
My favourite animal was DJ the rhino because I was so happy to see a rhino with its horn.
Unlike here where I'm working with rhinos, they don't have horns anymore.
So I was so happy that the rhinos who are being protected in zoos.
I never thought that I would see a happy rhino in a zoo.
DJ was a very happy boy. It was a very good thing.