- This is intense, guys.
The bull is right here on the other side of these trees.
You can see the trees moving.
He might be coming straight for us.
I see the tusks!
(Fast drum music)
(Calm orchestral music with tribal drums)
- [Coyote] Morning light finds its way through the darkness,
signaling a new day has arrived in South Africa.
If you manage to survive the night,
it simply means the the fight to survive against all odds
will once again repeat itself.
No matter who you are, size doesn't matter.
From the small but mighty dung beetle
to the King of the Savanna,
this harsh world, while beautiful is brutally unforgiving.
On this adventure, the crew and I
face an incredible challenge as we venture out
across the Kariega Game Reserve
in search of its most iconic animal species,
the African elephant.
Alright, guys. It's time to head out
on a classic elephant adventure.
Now you would think that finding an elephant,
something that big, would be simple.
But believe it or not, they're really good
at hiding into the underbrush.
So, today I'm going to be using binoculars,
we're going to be traveling by way of vehicle,
and with any luck we're going to get
a giant tusker up close for the cameras. (footsteps)
Iconically known as the big tusker,
this massive animal is seldomly seen.
Yet our field guide, Jo is known for her ability
to track and find this illusive icon.
So with confidence and the land cruiser driving us onward,
we travel deeper into the bush
looking for signs of this giant.
- [Jo] There. There!
- [Coyote] We got elephant tracks here guys. Stop. Stop.
- Oh, yeah.
- Wow, look at this.
(Swelling orchestral music) (Car door slam)
- Wow. That is me standing in the track of an elephant
and not a track that's been wedged down into the ground.
But right here you can see an elephant used its trunk
to scoop up all this loose soil
and then it would've (strange noise)
just thrown it all over its back.
And that's what they do, they cover themselves
in dust or mud to keep cool in the middle of the day.
So, I'm standing in a front foot right here.
Here's the other foot, another front foot
that's massive in circumference.
And then back here you've got the two back feet.
That is a huge animal.
- Do you think it could be our tusker?
- Could it be the tusker? Look.
He probably came right down this track.
Check this out. Broken branches.
Looks like he went right through this.
That snapped off, check that out.
So he just barrelled through the underbrush
right across the road and it looks
like he's headed in that direction.
Alright, guys. I think now we need to
turn the vehicle around, head the other way.
We are getting close to finding the elephants.
(Guitar music)
Fresh environmental indicators simply meant
that an elephant had recently been in this area.
Was it the big tusker? Or was it simply another rogue male?
Regardless of the answers, it felt as if
we were getting close to having an encounter.
Elephants have one of the most well-developed
senses of smell in the animal kingdom.
They are also very in tune with their environments
and are capable of detecting low vibrations
with their ears, feet, and trunk tips.
What this ultimately means (car engine)
is that the animal we are tracking
certainly knows well in advance that humans are approaching.
And despite boasting an impressive size,
this giant can mysteriously disappear
like a phantom into the shadowy underbrush
without us ever knowing it was there.
Well this is good news, guys.
We've seen some signs now, tracks and elephant droppings.
We're headed up into an open grassland here
and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I'm hoping that this is where
we're gonna find the elephants.
Traveling upward provided us a higher vantage point
and it wasn't long before we found a clearing.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
Where I could scan the surrounding landscape.
- See something? - Yes, I got an elephant.
Up there on the ridge. Mario, zoom all the way in
at the top crust of that ridge right there.
It's almost silhouetted against the sky.
Hundred percent. That's an elephant and it looks big.
You think we can get up there?
- [Jo] Yeah, definitely. - Okay. Alright guys, hold on.
We're headed up the side of that mountain.
From this distance, it was impossible to tell
whether or not we had set sights on the big tusker.
The only certainty was that we had honed in
on the location of a giant. The next challenge
would be getting close enough to have an encounter.
So right now we're looking for trees moving
or we're listening with our ears
to see if we can hear them trumpeting.
Now the male was with another,
we don't know if it was a female or a sub-adult male.
Just keep your eyes peeled guys, we are getting close.
Timing was everything as Jo navigated
the rocky roads with hasty precision.
A rush of adrenaline coursed through my veins
as the crew and I rode in an unusual silence.
I can't be certain what it was. I just had this feeling.
Something was telling me that we were
approaching a moment in time that would forever
be held as one of the most unforgettable
animal encounters of our lives.
This is intense guys, the bull is right here
on the other side of these trees.
You can see the trees moving. He might be
coming straight for us. (Branches cracking)
- Something right here as well. There's two.
(Branches cracking)
- Okay, guys it seems like the elephants
are actually going the other way down the hill.
So we're gonna try to swing around
this cluster of bushes and see if we can get a better shot.
We were so close, yet at the same time
equidistant to losing this entire episode.
Without an elephant in frame,
there'd be nothing to share with the world.
Then in fearless fashion, Jo took control of our fate
as she steered us toward a collision course
with the unimaginable.
I see the tusks. - See 'em?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah.
- [Jo] There you go. There you go.
- Coming out right there. We watched in silence.
The treetops dancing as something massive
crashed through the underbrush.
Then almost as if manifesting from the morning haze,
the shape of an elephant began to materialize.
Look at this one, coming out, revealing itself.
That's incredible. (soft piano music) Hi buddy.
With confidence the young male approached the vehicle.
His display was intimidating and as a human
I don't think I have ever felt so small.
Wow. Looking down the length of his trunk
past those proudly displayed tusks
and into those intelligent eyes,
I could see that he was sizing up the situation.
A challenging, yet curious demeanor
that was in no way aggressive.
We see you, there you go. That's a good boy.
Trust me when I say that my heart has never raced so fast.
Oh, there's another one.
Standing there on the back of that vehicle,
I mustered every ounce of courage I had
to feel no fear in the presence of this wild elephant.
You stay big boy. (dramatic music swell)
We looked at each other, eyes locked.
Neither willing to back down to the other's challenge
Despite the fact that this animal could
crush the vehicle and all of us if it chose to.
Yet, in that moment there was no battle to be had
and instead we made a warm connection
that I never dreamed possible.
There you go, good boy, good boy.
Oh, look at this guy. He's sittin' down back there.
For as brave as I like to believe I am,
this young bull clearly realized that
we were nothing but mere humans
and squishing us was certainly not worth the effort.
So he decided to tussle with someone his own size.
(Dramatic music) Look at 'em. Look at 'em.
Butting heads. Tusks intertwined.
This is a display of territorial dominance right here.
The following moment seemed to play out in slow motion
as these two titans crashed into each other.
The ground beneath us shook, the trees swayed
and with the magnitude of elephants,
literally elephants, a battle of epic proportions
played out before our very eyes.
Suddenly we found ourselves in
an incredibly dangerous position as the smaller male
decided to use our land cruiser as a barrier.
- [Jo] Uh-uh. Hey. Go on!
- [Coyote] When Jo means business-
- [Jo] Hey. - [Coyote] she means business.
- [Jo] Hey! - [Coyote] And as we watched,
hearts pounding from our chests,
the elephants took their differences
and rumbled down into the forest, disappearing out of sight.
Sweet. - Hell of an elephant.
- Right in the middle of an elephant fight.
You had the land cruiser right in between the two of them.
It was interesting, I thought they were going to
use the land cruiser as a dividing line
like they did with the trees earlier
but you had this larger male that's driving the smaller one
back there into the underbrush.
That was crazy. Probably gonna make a little outtake
in the episode, isn't it? - Oh, yeah. (laughter)
- [Coyote] That was intense. (High five) That was awesome.
Wow. (Upbeat orchestral music) How incredible was that?
Tracking elephants across the grasslands
and we finally find them hidden down in the underbrush
and have an encounter that I don't think any of us
could have ever prepared for.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure
Since 1979, African elephants have lost
over 50% of their range due to human encroachment.
And this, along with poaching for ivory over the decades
has caused the population to greatly decline.
Yet tireless conservation efforts
by reserves such as Kariega have helped to
establish strong breeding populations
that thankfully have driven the comeback
of this beautiful giant.
The African elephant is a force of nature unlike any other,
and to witness the magnificence of these animals in the wild
is a sight one will never forget.
With team morale at an all time high,
we descended back into the valley thinking our journey
had come to its storybook close. Yet much to our splendor
as we rounded a bend in the rocky road, there he was.
Standing like a mountain in all of his glory,
the one and only, big tusker.
Stay tuned for the unbelievable conclusion
as we managed to get the cameras up close
with Kariega's most iconic bull elephant.
And don't forget, subscribe, then click
the notification bell so you can join me and the crew
on our next wild adventure. (animal calls)