Hayden Turner: African wildlife diary

Australian TV presenter and filmmaker Hayden Turner has embarked on a three-month project to make a TV wildlife programme called ‘Video Postcards South Africa’. He is making it using Canon camcorders and is sending regular blogs from the bush to CPN.

Blog 2: Timbavati private game reserve - May 2008

Somebody wrote wanting to know a little more on the elephants we saw in my last blog, so here’s a little more. We started out tracking a solitary bull, but as things turned out, he had met a breeding herd at the same water hole - breeding herds are not normally tracked as they are more dangerous than most bulls. Experienced guides will prefer to show you a bachelor or a bachelor herd. Marius placed us in a perfect location showing extreme caution and his vast experience in this situation. We were on a little ridge, with a gully in front of us and downwind from the breeding herd of about 30 elephants - we couldn't have been in a better spot. As we got close to the fresh tracks (commonly known as "spoor") we started to hear sounds of the herd feeding and enjoying some family time - they seemed to be stationary and were near a water source that Marius and the guide Isaac knew was a favourite spot for them at this time of the day.

When you are walking through the bush in Africa, it’s essential that you are accompanied by a professional trails guide - there are a lot of them around, but be sure to check credentials and experience before you set out - wild animals are not to be played with, misunderstood or taunted - the whole aim of the game is for you to have an†incredible†experience and get footage and photos that have that experience accompany those shots - you will have a very different feeling wash over you from being in a car I assure you. If this is something that appeals to you, I have no hesitation in recommending the best trail guides in the business (email me at info@haydenturner.com).

Sometimes there are situations that occur that nobody can predict and when you are with a professional, they will know what to do and when to do it - the second most important thing is listening to your guide’s judgment and knowing something about the behaviour of the species that you are observing. The more that you know, the more you will get from the experience.

Breeding herds are made up of related females and their young, directed by the eldest female, called the matriarch. Infrequently, an adult male goes with them, but those usually leave the herd when reaching adolescence to form bachelor herds with other elephants of the same age. Later, they spread out, living a lonely life, approaching the female herds only during the mating season. Nevertheless, elephants do not go too far from their families and recognise them when re-encountered. Sometimes, several female herds can blend for a period of time, reaching up to hundreds of individuals.

The matriarch is the one who decides the route and shows to each other member of the herd all the water sources she knows, which the rest will memorise in the future. The relations among the members of the herd is very tight; when a female gives birth to a baby the rest of the herd will go to acknowledge it touching her with the trunk; and when an old elephant dies the rest of the herd will stay by the corpse.

Anyway, we were observing them for about 15 minutes when I heard a noise, not thunderous, but enough to know that something was coming up from behind us. I notified Marius with a whisper and he simply said: "stay absolutely motionless." I couldn't see what he could see from where I was sitting, but another breeding herd was approaching from behind us and we were in a most precarious position now - this is where we had to stay calm, use our skills and say a little prayer to Mother Nature that we were good humans. The matriarch was leading them and she could smell us so we didn't actually startle her, but she was slightly anxious as she saw us stood literally 10 metres away. My heart rate went through the roof, but we had to ensure we stayed still and on our haunches (this was a key to the success of survival here). Staying on our haunches and motionless didn't make us 'obvious human' upright figures and she couldn't quite make up her mind whether to dispose of us, or to just simply walk on.

The plot thickened because a two-month-old calf walked under the mother’s belly and that’s when I thought "its lights out for all of us here". Female elephants with calves (even moreso the matriarch with her calf!) are the most protective members of the herd and should be given a very wide berth - they will have little hesitation if push comes to shove, to eliminate the threat - I was hoping that my little prayer to mother nature was not being delivered by post and the it was received minutes ago! She shook her head at us and walked on, giving the rest of the herd the go-ahead that the coast was clear and the danger was not life threatening (to them anyway).

They moved on, our heart rates started to drop, smiles began appearing on our faces and then a feeling of surrealism washed over me like I have never had since a nearly died when a Black rhinoceros charged me in Zimbabwe in 1994 - I said that same prayer to mother nature that time too! I’m hoping that she knows that my work is protecting and educating humans about wildlife and the environment, and let’s just those little prayers get through to her somehow in my times of need in the future too or I will be one flattened old man!

It’s insanity to walk at night in the bush for obvious reasons so we chose to drive my car to the waterhole late this afternoon. We parked up at sundown with enough camera equipment to cover all bases – we had the Canon XH A1, HV30, an EOS 5D with an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM lens, and an EOS 400D with the same lens and some other bits and bobs. We were well stocked with enough supplies to get us through till the early hours should something incredible occur.

One of the things that I was worried about with going out solo again was the weight of the newer cameras - I often hold the camera in front of me, single-handed and do a 'piece to camera'. The XH A1, at just over 2kgs, is considerably lighter than its competitors and that’s a big plus for me in the field - I’m often shaking from fear and adrenaline, so I don’t need the camera shake added from something too heavy. It was a pleasant surprise that the old 'muscle memory' came back and all those fibres (10 years older they may be!) still came back into recruitment with no problems due to it being surprisingly light for what it offers!

"Why dont you use a monopod"? I hear you say. Well I do, but you can’t always have the luxury of it touching the ground when you’re out tracking big mammals on foot. We are constantly on the move - for example, elephants cover distance much quicker than you think: just over 7kmph compared to us humans at 4-5kmph. A small a difference as that is, you really have to move with speed, and as quietly as one can be. So, its lightness and the exceptional Optical Image Stabiliser make the XH A1 a real performer. I’m often surprised when looking back over the footage at how little camera shake there is, even when the camera is being handheld at the extremes of zoom. Another thing that struck me is that all the buttons are in logical places, grouped roughly by function - all the divots and bumps on them allow the user to operate the camera without looking at it, and that’s important in many of the situations I’m in. When we were seeing our lives flash before us with the matriarch and her calf last week, any small movement could have been fatal. I was hesitant to look at the camera, but I got it operating and everything in shot with minimal movement.

As dusk fell over this sought after water point, Marius and I could hear elephants feeding en route towards us. With the crashing of trees, breaking of branches and superb vocalisations they arrived at the waterhole from all directions… there were obvious matriarchs, other adult females and sub-adults and calves of both sexes. Occasionally a big adult bull would arrive and make himself known. There were several breeding herds, one after the other – it was hard to count them all due to low light but a modest guess would have been around 80 to 100 animals. A beautiful experience and hard to describe other than humbling. It’s dark, the largest land mammal on the planet is surrounding you in vast numbers and you are privileged to be in their company.

After several hours of being surrounded by herds and herds of elephant and enjoying all the excitement and moments that go with it, we decided to call it quits for the night and return to camp. As I was manoeuvring the car into a position to drive off, a male leopard was lying, 50 metres from us waiting to drink! It was a sight to behold! I could see the joy in Marius’s face! Leopards are the ‘Rolls Royce of the big cats’ and to see one like this, unexpectedly, makes you feel like you have won the lottery (not that I know that feeling, but I can imagine). He was being patient as the elephant ‘owned’ the hole for the moment and he dare not risk and encounter with the bull that was just below him drinking.

We spent over an hour with that leopard, observing him as he went about his business – drinking, sampling the scent of a female that had passed through his territory and parading around in front of us like a catwalk model. Individual leopards have a home range that overlaps with their neighbours; the male's range is much larger and generally overlaps with those of several females. Leopards are solitary mammals and predominately nocturnal. Their ranges are marked with urine and claw marks and they announce their presence to other leopards with a rasping cough. This was a magnificent creature and then he took one last look at us and slipped away into the night as silently as he arrived…

It was a great privilege and experience I will never forget, but I think the most wonderful aspect of it all was that we were watching him he was watching us. There was no need for us to get closer and change his behaviour just to “get the shot” – we were on his turf and he was okay with that. That was the best feeling for me, not chasing him, not harassing him, just observing him and letting him choose when to leave… that’s what viewing wildlife is all about.

It’s not hard to take photos or video in Africa, but I tell you, when you have a rare encounter for that long with one of mother nature’s finest, you feel very fortunate to be alive! I can hear lions roaring in the distance, time for bed and the sounds of Timbavati to put me to sleep! Night.

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Blog 1: Timbavati private game reserve - April 2008

I have just completed a marathon journey of 1,946km from Pletttenberg Bay in the Western Cape of South Africa to the Timbavati private game reserve on the Kruger National Park border in the country’s north-east corner. A great mate here, Marius Swart, has been offering me an incredible opportunity for the past few years that’s never fitted in with my work plans, but at last it has. It’s a chance to photograph, video and get up very close to buffalo, elephant, lion, rhino and other wildlife – on foot!

Our camp is called Kruger’s Camp, owned by another great friend, Ian Kruger, who has kindly given me one of his tents to base myself in during my filming and it’s from here that I’m typing this blog.

It’s 11pm and the hyenas are vocalising not far from here. The night is alive with a cacophony of crickets and I’m trying to shot list my tapes from today. We have just put the campfire out and Marius has gone to his tent as we have a 5am start in the morning. Our aim is to pick up where we left off from this afternoon – tracking 15 lions on foot. We were so close but we lost the light and it was getting too dangerous to continue so we called it quits and are going back to follow their tracks in the morning. We suspect they will take out a buffalo tonight as they were following a 200-plus strong breeding herd of buffalo – a food high on the menu for a pride that big.

We have also been so close to elephant today. I will never forget it and shot some great stills and video – a breeding herd and the matriarch with a calf only about two months old. She tolerated us so wonderfully and the whole aim of the documentary I’m making is about that, and many other facets of watching and photographing wildlife. Do it safely, responsibly and with credited professionals if you are choosing to walk in the wild.

I can’t keep my eyes open. Night.

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