On Safari (1957)

[Music] [Music] there are throughout the world certain lighthouses which to Travelers by sea have a peculiar significance they are the first lights to be seen When approaching home at the end of a long journey Journey passengers croud on Deck excited moved sometimes deeply by this first sight of the cherished Homeland Travelers by air watch for and recognize certain landmarks in a similar way to Mika and myself the first site of Mount Kenya at the end of the flight from Europe or from America signals the return to the land which we think most beautiful in the world and which we love best Mount Kenya is a very old mountain it must have been at one time truly gigantic it is but the core of an ancient volcano thrown up by fire millions of years ago worn Away by millions of years of glacial erosion it has witnessed the entire history of the continent of Africa as we know it today the craggy mountain with its icy Peak and snow covered slopes on the very equator itself is an amazing and moving sight if few minutes later we have come down from 18,000 ft to 6,000 we land at Nairobi airport armore and I are full of plans for new Journeys new adventures new pictures we are eager to see again our house near Nairobi which we hope someday to call home we are eager to see our many friends to see again also the many animal friends which we had to leave behind when we left Africa but we shall not be home very long a lot of new equipment has been flown for us to Kenya we are making some changes in our programs which are very important to us for one thanks to new electronic equipment we hope to be able to present them to you no longer from the studio in London but directly from Africa synchronous sound recording on the spot is still full of many difficulties in tropical countries away from Laboratories and Facilities of all kinds but we have wonderful assistants who have already been at work for several weeks installing and testing equipment and preparations will not take long for our first Safari but it will take a few days to catch up with the news of all that has happened in 6 months of that the title of our first chapter today is search for Gerty and it is the search for Gerty which has brought us to amboseli you have better explain who Gerty is oh yes well here's the story years ago a man who used to be a missionary in East Africa certainly a photograph it is the most extraordinary picture of ocus I had ever seen I showed such an interest in this picture that the old missionary kindly gave it to me and I've kept it all these years here it is a female rhinoceros you're familiar of course with the appearance of the average African rhino African rhinos have two horns the front one usually longer than the back one but both hor are usually directed upward and of reasonable length for a rhino to possess a horn of this fantastic length and to have it point forward instead of upward is utterly abnormal and astonishing of course there had no idea where this Photograph had been taken or if this animal was still alive then one day an old tangena settler started talking to me about a rhinoceros he knew osus with an enormous amazing forward pointing horn he glistened her Gerty I showed him my photograph and he instantly recognized her this was Gerty and he knew where he lived in the old amboseli game reserve which is perhaps the only reason why she was still alive we wanted to start right there and then to Amber Celli but it was the rainy season the track would be impossible so it wasn't until a month ago that we actually started out on our search for Gerty Yambo game reserve is less than 200 miles from Nairobi an easy Journey if somewhat Dusty during the dry season but most of the reserve is beautiful open Parkland with as background the great Mountain Kilimanjaro we have hardly entered the reserve and already we have stopped in our work we have found a lovely herd of young Impala I mean a herd in which all the animals are young Impala seem to do this more than any other Antelope divide themselves into groups of the same sex or the same age this group contains some beautiful young males they already have the liar shaped horns which are characteristic of the adult m M Impala and already they hold themselves with the assured and almost noble bearing of the full-grown Antelope and yet one can feel in their whole action the slight awkwardness of adolescence impas are very sociable and live in harmony with each other of course the Young males fight at certain Seasons but we have never seen them fight savagely and to the death as is common with other species the young animals seem to know that their little growing horns are there more for beauty than as Weapons of attack or defense we have often seen imp Palace like this fondling and licking each other affectionately I have known only two people who kept Impalas as pets they found him affectionate and devoted but Impalas are too gregarious to do well in captiv one should never keep one of the animals which normally live in big herds they suffer too much from loneliness our Impala friends are on their way but one youngster is interested in other things to him this is breakfast time and he says so in his own way I am beginning to think that these youngsters are not all as gentle as we said on with our journey we have left the trail and travel off the trail is not always too easy or too comfortable but I have seen a herd of giraffe in the distance feeding on the low Thorn bushes and I think we shall get some unusual shots we have always heard that the giraffe got their long necks as a result of competition each trying to reach higher than the others towards the tops of the trees this one is straining its neck to eat from Little sa trees which would be just right for a goat the giraffe is such a highly speci animal that it has a great deal of trouble doing some simple things such as drinking from a pool or eating off low bushes these are watching us uneasily and suspicious of our presence but then we are actually very close to them far closer than one is usually able to approach the giraffe but there is no other way to get good pictures of wild animals the people who hunt with cameras have to get far far closer to game than the people who hunt with guns we haven't traveled far before it is proved to us that we are in good Rhino country all right we part the mother and C happy to get out of our way hardly have we left them behind we find ourselves literally convoyed by a very large and Powerful specimen of the Rhino species Mika wants to take a picture of him with her new camera so I turned back to give her a chance without any hesitation he attacks and misses us of course I always expect a rhino to charge I turn back again this is my opportunity to check a theory I have long held that Rhino if he has once charged you and missed you is not likely to attack again this one is going to get a very good chance [Music] just as I thought the Rhino charges because he expects to bowl over whatever is in his way but if for any reason this first attack is unsuccessful in most cases not always mind you he seems to lose his confidence in his own invincibility and decides that discretion is a better part of valor [Music] there are plenty of elephants too at amboseli and I could easily spend a few days here at my favorite sport which is photographing elephants of course we have set ourselves another purpose to search for legendary Gerty but I cannot resist the temptation to get some unusual shots of my favorite subjects the trunk of the elephant its delicacy and its strength and the Myriad uses to which it can be put leave me always confounded with amazement and admiration do you realize that it is absolutely unique in the entire Animal Kingdom that there is not any other organ of any other animals attempting to fulfill the same functions or approaching it anatomically the elephant uses it of course for breathing and for drinking for showering himself or dusting himself with Earth as a snorkel to enable him to swim across deep Rivers as a cushion in a pushing over of trees or the shifting of heavy loads as an organ of punishment in the chastising of unruly youngsters and an organ of love and affection in courtship I have seen an elephant striking with terrific blows of his trunk beat hippos out of a pool in which he wished to wallow himself an elephant's trunk of course contains no bone bones but it contains literally thousands of muscles and an incredible network of nerves it is almost as useful as a hand with far more strength than reach and in addition it is an organ of smell so delicate and efficient that the elephant has come to rely upon it for instance for the finding of food far more than upon his eyes Mika now wants to take a picture of an elephant but for some reason elephants always turn their backs to her and show nothing but their behinds anyhow I don't like it to go close enough for a good picture with her little camera is not safe at all I promise to take her within 15 ft of an elephant but not on foot but Mika thinks that even the picture of an elephant's behind is better than nothing the very first elephant we come to is as Lively as one could wish I think he's likely to do very well and we make a big circle which brings us past him again and again he shows a vigorous and most encouraging reaction Mika is delighted with him when I back the Jeep up she's already using up film and trying to get a picture but you can't get a good picture from a moving car there seem to be a lot of elephants around we watch our elephant from a little way away he's a beautiful animal with a fine pair of tusks he has quickly calmed down it would be fine if we could get close to him but he's partly hidden by bus we'd get a much better picture if he came out in the open we try again for the third time our elephant doesn't seem to be in a much more sociable mood than before I hate to abandon however he's such a good-look animal what we need is an elephant siiz dose of tranquilizer this is nearly an hour later for an hour we have been letting him get used to the purring of the Jeep at last he's moving out into the open where we want him he has heard me shift into gear soon he's calm again I think we can make another attempt this time an infinitely cous approach Well Mika gets her first picture and another and still another and still one more but it is time to go goodbye and thanks to a most Cooperative model I don't think he quite knows how we got there and what happened to him now I hear 100 voice is asking did Mika get a good picture well the answer is yes she did here it is I think it's a pretty good picture don't you we're on our way again I know of a patch of heavy Bush which is a favorite haunt of rhinos and I know of a Deep Hell which overlooks it there would never be a hope of locating a given rhino in the thick bush but my hope is that we may be able to spot Gerty from the top of the hill and then find her in a search on foot at first sight it seems hopeless an immense area of bush lies before us then I begin to see game with glasses not withstanding the heat waves I spot Impala Kudo Impala again this is an exciting search they elephants they are giraffes which one doesn't think of as inhabiting heavy Bush but they obviously go deep among the trees in the heat of the day for Sade and coolness and now I begin to see rhinos rhinos move very little during the day once they're UN sconed in sick Bush and wh hidden we see usually only a bit of their backs and have to wait for what seems hours for a glimpse of their heads and with luck a flash of their horns they disappear into the bush and reappear some distance away and there's no way of telling if we are seeing a new Rhino or one already dismissed as not being dirty At Last I think I see yes a gigantic forward pointing horn there's no possible doubt this is Gerty we almost run down the hill in our excitement but this is not a place where you can run without looking there is a big Rhino two tons of it complete with two efficient horns but fortunately he has not heard us and is completely unaware of our presence we've had time to drop into what is almost a natural blind and hope that he will not hear the camera clicking or that the shift of the wind will not bring him our sent we have found another position more directly down wind this one is in the full strength of age he's covered with the scars of many battles he's a fine performer and I feel like we are getting some very good film you have noticed the familiar tick bird on his neck of course this is bad I'm afraid he heard us or got our scent he looks uneasy aware undoubtedly of some unfamiliar presence and now he has seen us there's nothing we can do except hope he will not charge what relief I suppose this happens more frequently than it charge but you never know this is one time when I would rather see the ridiculous bottom of the rhinoceros than its most handsome front we have caught sight of two other rhinos a cow and a c at first we could not see her horns and we thought we had found Gerty now we could see clearly that she wasn't Gerty but I wanted to picture anyway I never feel at ease on foot approaching rhino in open country with no protection whatever in case of a charge a lot of people have got killed kill that way there's no chance of getting much closer without detection anyway I signal to Mika this isn't a longhorn gty let us go oh yes Mika wants at least one more picture at last to my releas we're on our way back and when we least expect it a long pointed incredibly sharp forward pointing horn emerged just from behind a bush we've had no time to hide we're at work taking pictures this is Gerty all right at last the legendary Gerty with a cal as I thought I saw from the top of the hill surely the most abnormal and freakish Rhino horn ever SE she shies she's aware of us but she continues undisturbed we took a lot of pictures of Gertie she performed for us beautifully you might almost have thought that she knew she was being photograft and enjoyed it she showed us her full face then just as we thought we had enough of her food she showed her profile we wondered how old Gertie is how many years she has carried this fantastic horn how many carves she's had how much longer she may live these questions are hard to answer I think she's quite an old lady she has a good manners and a mannerisms of an aristocratic old lady of Victorian times I felt that we had been honored with an interview and that now after a suitable space of time we were being courteously dismissed an hour later we had said goodbye to the Rhino country and we're on our way back to camp into our Nairobi home when we got back to our house in Nairobi we found urgent messages awaiting us from the station Master a dangerous animal had arrived for us it had escaped in the station it turned out to be a beetle this believe it or not is the largest beetle in the world even the largest beetle in the world is helpless on its back let me pick it up and help it to its feet when I put it on the back of my hand you will realize I think it's fantastic size it is the Goliath beetle of Africa and it is exceedingly hard to come by I tried in vain for three years to obtain one at last this one was sent me from the kosi forest in Kenya by the local Forest officer it was too big to put in into one of the cigarette pins with which I had provided him in case one was found he sent it in a cardboard box which broke up on the way and a beetle got out to the consternation and Terror of the Railroad employees in Nairobi I had to go to the station and it myself our friend may be helpless on his back but he is thoroughly at home climbing the Goliath beetle lived as a matter of fact the very top of the trees in a great tropical forest flying from tree to tree with a tremendous noise and clatter most of the specimens in museum collections have not been collected by hand because the Beatles are so rarely found near the ground but they have been shut down like birds with small shot in its life cycle of course the Goliath beetle must go through a puper stage and a puper must be huge it is said that it is found in the Earth at the foot of wild fig trees in the forest and I have an army of paninis out looking for one with the offer of an enormous reward of five sillings with any luck I will show you one someday as you see the beetle easily covers a span of 6 in the puper must be 8 in long or more at this point our Beetle suddenly flew off to a fallen mango in the garden instantly he started feeding overripe fruit was obviously his diet he has been eating ever since mango banana Popa and even Apple his system of eating is evidently very different from yours or mine for one thing he never seems to stop his mandibles or whatever they may be called function with the regularity of a machine and although they seem frightfully inefficient it is surprising how much of a mango or a slice of banana they can demolish in one night we tried to get good pictures of the eating Machinery in action but I still don't understand how it works Goliath the beetle is now an established member of our family I fear he may be lonely and I want to find him a wife I would like to know how long Goliath Beatles live as us we found at our house letters asking for news of our pets Minnie Gilbert Hogan and all the others we have much to tell you about them but today we have time only for two of our pets our serval cat was only a kitten when we left Kenya we looked forward to seeing it almost grown up it has become a beautiful animal with a narrow head the long pointed ears with the broad white spots on their upper sides the beautifully proportioned profile and delicate face all the typical characteristics of the true wild cat playful enough as long as the game is a pretense of hunting of pouncing upon a victim affectionate up to a point with Mika and myself but easily distracted we've had several wild cats as pets of several different species it is an endless pleasure to watch their alertness and their graceful action their beauty in some ways they make very fascinating pets but they never quite cease to be wild and their wildness sooner or later gets them into trouble of course the seril is only a very small addition of a lion it has only a fraction of the strength and terrible weapon of a leopard but it has inherently all the ferocity and wildness of a leopard the great pity is wild cats cannot be let loose with other pets they can be so very destructive look at him suddenly losing all interest in play posing for his portrait and once he is tired of play he cannot be tempted to it again he will just wander restlessly through our living rooms I have given up trying to make a house cat out of a Servo but Mika hasn't Mika believes that what wild cats need is love and that with enough love everything would be fine our last chapter is about a little chimpanzee who is the newest member of our family we we haven't agreed on a name for him yet so he's just the baby tears Lamentations extremities of Despair believe it or not all morning the baby has been playing happily in his play pen he's had a wonderful time but then neither Mika or I were in sight now the situation is changed he could be being cuddled and made a F off now he feels that he has been abandoned and neglected and I feel that an event which I have dreaded is about to take place an event which will bring about a revolution in our home life the baby is about to succeed for the first time in climbing out of his play pen oh MAA will be proud of him but I think it'll be the end of Peace in the household there he is up again he has been getting just about this he's made it he's out the baby can get out of his pen he is a smart baby all has told MAA that he was a smart and clever little chimpanzee after all he's only a little over a year old the natural home of a little chimpanzee like him is the Congo or almost anywhere else in the great African tropical forest but this baby was not born in Africa years ago I took his father and his mother from the Congo to the chimpanzee Farm which I then had in Florida and he was actually born in Florida and flown to Earth across the Atlantic to Nairobi one gets very much attached to a baby chimpanzee too much so and a baby gets too much attached to those who take care of him and very dependent they rely so much upon you this baby is under a sense of injury done him because he had to work so hard to join Mika he's awfully tired after these great exertions but he has found peace comfort and a warmth of affection this is the end of today's program we shall soon be with you again goodbye everybody goodbye he hit me face in the face goodbye [Music] [Music]