Savannah Giants: The Secrets of the Titans 🐘🦒 | Wildlife Documentary HD

Every day when the sun is at its peak the elephants go to the waterhole She is a large female walking at the front The small group she leads consists of individuals all belonging to the same family There is the mother her daughters and their offspring— a few specimens of an extraordinary species A final reference to the megafauna that dominated the Earth during the Tertiary era Large size high water needs—100 to 200 liters per day They usually drink only once a day It is almost always an opportunity for a second segment dedicated to body care Elephants have neither sebaceous nor sudoriferous glands Mud already has a benefit—it softens their skin This group is a typical example of the basic social unit among elephants A dozen individuals with no adult males present They leave the family unit during adolescence when they start bothering the females These moments clearly have a playful quality and both children and adults would likely enjoy prolonging them But already the matriarch had signaled the start of the departure Then we're off again The mud will dry on the pots and form a protective shell that will be highly effective against insects and the scorching sun Less than 30 minutes passed between the elephants' arrival and their departure It was undoubtedly the best part of their elephant day If the matriarch shortened it it's because she knows the busy schedule ahead of them It's peak of the dry season Food is less nutritious and it takes a great deal of time to feed this massive body It takes up sixteen hours of the elephant's day He must consume daily an amount equivalent to 4 to 6 percent of his body weight more than 200 kilograms for a large male of this size He needs food that is readily available in large quantities It's no coincidence that the largest land mammal is a vegetarian To meet such a need there's no room for being picky Depending on the location and season the elephant eats whatever vegetation it can find Under these circumstances dried foliage will do The animal however is a refined gourmet with distinct preferences He particularly appreciates the mopane leaves shaped like butterflies and the wood of the baobab trees The elephants stripped the bark from it as high as they could reach During the dry season the elephant primarily feeds on woody plants meaning trees and shrubs He alternates with dry grass as much as possible having already broken a tusk likely from forcing his way through stubborn bark The footprints on the bare trunk strip are all fresh The elephants have been feasting The savanna bears everywhere the marks of elephants' excessive fondness for long strips of bark When male lions leave their maternal pride they have two choices: live alone or share their lives with a few companions Adult elephants having no natural predators have no practical reason for this association It simply comes down to the other's preference and herd instinct It's always surprising to see these animals who must consume enormous amounts of food eat slowly and with great delicacy If ever proof were needed of their insatiable appetite just look around The elephant shares with humans a peculiar privilege Through his actions he can alter the landscape turning a wooded savanna into a dry one The man and the camel share another common trait They can survive in any habitat as long as they find water and food Elephants are generalist animals They have not specialized They have colonized all available habitats by leveraging their adaptability Wherever he goes the great savanna lumberjack continues his work as a gardener Dropping 3 to 5 droppings every 100 minutes in a near-regular rhythm they sow and fertilize Unlike the giraffe buffalo or gazelles the elephant does not ruminate Due to their two-stage digestion ruminants absorb two-thirds of their food The elephant by comparison digests less than half of it Its digestion is highly inefficient As a result the droppings are full of intact seeds If the birds don't eat them they have a good chance of sprouting since they're in a fertile environment An elephant evacuates 150 kilograms of waste daily and simultaneously disperses thousands of seeds It somewhat compensates for the vegetation it destroys in this way These silhouettes are so familiar to us that we forget just how literally extraordinary this creature is He is the result of radical choices made by his ancestors throughout evolution Whether seen up close or from afar it bears no resemblance to any other animal sharing its habitat Of course every species has its own unique traits The zebra has its stripes The bubale with angular horns a shiny two-toned body Zebras are not ruminants but cattle are However their morphology is broadly comparable The legs are slender the neckline is well-defined It is the most common model in the savanna The neck corresponds to the cervical vertebrae Almost all mammals have seven from the impala to the yellow mongoose And this is even true for the giraffe To lengthen her neck she didn’t increase the number of vertebrae but instead stretched them to an extreme Each one measures about forty centimeters Thanks to this adaptation she has claimed an ecological niche She feeds where others don't go At the elephant the option is the opposite The cervical vertebrae are flattened as much as possible This time out of necessity so the head is as closely attached to the body as possible A longer neck would have thrown the animal off balance forward Especially since this massive head also bears tusks and a trunk Today the elephant is the only animal on Earth to possess this peculiar organ It is the last surviving member of a family that was thriving 30 million years ago She documented over a hundred species the proboscids The word comes from Greek where "proboscis" refers to the trunk She has evolved significantly over the years Originally she was very short It was flattened as well In its current form already present in mastodons and mammoths it dates back to around one million years ago To understand why the elephant developed a trunk just look at other herbivores For instance these buffaloes crossing paths with the elephants There are about a hundred individuals here and nearly all are in the same position—heads down grazing To eat they lower their mouths to ground level which seems obvious But the elephant is entirely incapable of it It's far too large and moreover it's hindered by its tusks Unable to bring its mouth to the food the elephant had only one solution: to bring the food to its mouth A method of movement that in the most advanced species manifests as limbs equipped with hands The option chosen by the elephant is completely different He developed a massive grasping organ formed by the fusion of his nose and upper lip The trunk is almost as tall as the elephant It gives it an excellent range of motion in all directions Thanks to it he can reach foliage thought to be reserved for giraffes Here is the perfect tool to continuously feed the mighty grinding machine housed within its jaws The elephant has only four molars but they are enormous and possess an extraordinary chewing ability The elephant can raise lower and move its trunk in any direction The trunk itself is almost infinitely flexible It's a complex assembly of over 40 000 muscles and experience is required to get the most out of it Elephant calves require several months to learn how to coordinate their movements An adult elephant can do pretty much whatever it wants with its trunk He pulls up a clump of grass and shakes it to remove the clump of earth The elephant still hits a limit—it can't hold onto something and grasp it at the same time He often yields with his foot An elephant's trunk is not just a grasping limb it' s also the trumpet through which it conveys its mood It's the nose through which he breathes The seat of smell It is the sense of touch that enables us to stay connected with others It's the versatile tool that overpowers sucks up and sprays Because it solved many of the challenges associated with its size the elephant's trunk has enabled it to endure through the ages Another factor proved decisive His diet The carnivorous giants of yesterday are all gone Of the megafauna from the Quaternary only a few species remain They count on the fingers of one hand And all these animals are vegetarian He has maintained his outdated silhouette The black rhinoceros is one of the last survivors of a family that first appeared 35 million years ago At that time his ancestors lacked horns but they were already true rhinoceroses with massive bodies short legs and a long head It ends in a grasping lip shaped like a turtle's beak This other species of rhinoceros has survived The white rhinoceros Twice the size of its black cousin it appeared millions of years later during the Quaternary era In both species the eyes are small and set very low on the cheeks To compensate for their poor vision they rely on their ears While the black rhinoceros eats up to 200 different plant species The white rhinoceros eats only grass Rhinos have neither canines nor incisors so it's their lips that grasp and cut the food On the white rhinoceros their horns are broad and straight to provide a large surface for grazing Rhinos mainly eat in the morning and evening Here just after a standing bath They eat only about 20 to 30 kilograms of grass per day That's very little for animals of their size If their food needs are limited it's because their metabolism is slow and they expend little energy ending to appear often apathetic Nothing at all like the elephants' perpetual alertness which could never have endured the persistent nagging of those crows Despite the rhinoceros's thick tough skin it still attracts a wide variety of blood-sucking insects and parasites Its skin almost invulnerable is covered by a thin highly vascularized epidermal layer Though he appears oblivious to everything the sudden twitch of his ears betrays a sharp alertness Unusually this pair of rhinoceroses consists of a male and a female—a mating pair It is bred for one to three weeks during the breeding period For the remainder of the year adult males live alone on their territory He sensed the ground was already taken Without a doubt this pile of dung marks the boundaries of a territory To mark their territory rhinoceroses regularly pass by and deposit their scent in their dung piles They always take the same path and are so routine-bound that they end up carving actual trails through the savanna The rhinoceros is known for being a solitary animal which holds true for territorial males Females on the other hand are rarely alone If they have no offspring they join forces with other females in the same situation and form stable groups of a few individuals The strongest and most consistent social bond among rhinoceroses is the one connecting the calf to its mother They stay together for two to three years well beyond weaning well beyond reaching critical size making them vulnerable to predators Just an hour after being born the young rhinoceros was already standing beside its mother Today he is two months old and is starting to nibble Despite its early start the rhino's life will not live up to its promise This sheltered youth having had exclusive contact only with her mother is being prepared for a life devoid of meaningful social connections Elephant calves also stay close to their mothers But there is a difference They are part of a group This time we are far removed from the small family unit of a dozen individuals When a family grows to include around twenty members it's common for it to split apart Each then has her own life but there are plenty of opportunities to meet up These elephants are undoubtedly related members of the same ancestral clan The elephant calf strives to stay close to its mother But if they happen to be separated at any point there's something to reassure him In case of difficulty he knows he can count on the assistance of any of his females whether they are her sisters aunts or distant cousins Yet the elephant is a complex animal and paradoxically if its mother were to die there would be no one to adopt it Elephant calves retain their plump babyish appearance for a long time To estimate their age you can rely on their height They are about 90 cm tall at birth and gain around 20 cm in height within the first year The smallest ones are still crawling beneath their mother's belly A little later they go around it Without indisputable benchmarks in a group where height ranges from 1 to 3 Observing behavior provides reliable clues about an individual's age This calf is at least five months old the age at which elephant calves learn to coordinate using their foot and trunk He is about 1.2 meters tall He is likely between 2 and 3 years old and already shows considerable independence As for these two given their size playing style and limited defense we can estimate they're between six and eight years old Regardless of their age all individuals submit unreservedly to the group's discipline What might be most surprising about the elephant is its ability to fully embrace a dual identity One as an inseparable member of the group the other as an individual who never surrenders control over living their own life If there is one distinctive feature inseparable from the elephant it is its tusks They persisted throughout his entire life The tusks are upper incisors and like all teeth they grow more or less straight They begin to protrude from the jaw when elephant calves are about two years old At puberty around the age of 10 they weigh between 1 and 3 kilograms From this point onward they grow faster in males because testosterone influences their growth Their development varies greatly depending on habitat and diet Its wealth or lack thereof in mineral reserves is decisive Within a group since animals live under the same conditions tusk size serves as a reliable indicator of an individual's age and sex There are often animals within the herd that bear distinctive markings They enable the identification of the herd and the recognition of individual animals This greatly facilitates the study of the pagiderm A wealth of data has been gathered regarding elephants and countless observations have been recorded revealing an infinite variety of behaviors The elephant is undoubtedly the savanna animal that has been studied the most And it's just the opposite for the third surviving vegetarian giant the hippopotamus The hippopotamus remains relatively unknown because its way of life makes observation difficult He spends most of the day in the water and when he's in the water he often shows little more than the few hairs on his snout In the morning as he returns from grazing all night along the banks the hippopotamus reveals his massive size as a true mega herbivore The body is barrel-shaped and mounted on four short pillars capable of supporting its two or three tons of weight It is known that hippos and pigs share a common ancestor and that the two families diverged about 50 million years ago Yet their common ancestor remains unknown The sun is rising and the animal is eager to dive in Since his epidermis is very thin and he likewise lacks sweat glands It dehydrates very quickly much faster than any other mammal The hippopotamus is yet another animal truly unlike any other distinguished by its unique morphology amphibious nature and paradoxical way of life remains largely unexplained The hippopotamus which always ventures alone at night to graze on the riverbanks It systematically searches throughout the day for proximity to its peers The idea of standing together could make sense if the animal had predators—particularly threats to its young In truth young hippopotamuses are more often killed by adult males of their own species at crocodiles who are mainly interested in fish Crocodiles and hippos frequently coexist and there's a good reason for it They both favor the same environment: the waters of rivers or lakes as long as they are calm and have flat unobstructed banks The hippopotamus is capable of climbing a steep slope But for him this is ideal A gently sloping bank that allows him to effortlessly shuttle back and forth with the water He hates muddy floors and has strict requirements there must be at least 1.5 meters of water in some places It's the depth that's enough for her to fully immerse herself Hippos live in groups of twelve or more individuals led by a dominant male In a stable environment like this dominant males can maintain their status for several years Many young contenders are constantly training hoping to challenge them one day The battle is fought exclusively using this massive jaw which opens to 150 degrees At the hippopotamus the lower jaw is equipped with large curved incisors and incisors that grow straight throughout the animal's entire life They can reach up to about fifty centimeters That’s saying these two are still young and this fight isn’t serious Hippos exhibit a very strong tendency to synchronize their activities It's routine among the youngest When their mother enters the water they follow her What constitutes a natural need for protection in babies is less easily explained in adults Unless one considers this obsession with always staying in touch with someone else Hippos maintain their share of mystery and some of their behaviors remain unexplained Especially since they can be found as here in unlikely circumstances—or at the very least diametrically opposed to the tastes and habits we ascribe to them By nature every hippopotamus avoids fast-moving water whenever possible Not only is he not there by chance but he returns day after day to rejoin the heart of the swift current He relaxes and enjoys himself there No matter how difficult it is for him daily to access this bubbling bath The truth is that beyond the generalizations that apply to species there are individuals with their own personalities and desires When the sun rises the elephants are still on the move constantly searching for food and visible for viewing Unlike most animals female mammals carry their nipples on the front part of their body Access to the website is now simplified Babies drink directly with their mouths without using a nipple they barely master on the first day of life The elephant accumulates numerous anatomical peculiarities yet each one fits within a remarkable consistency Every option always comes with an adjustment that makes it viable His bare skin is exposed to the heat Never mind—he has his enormous ears each over a meter tall to cool him down And since they are highly vascularized the entire circulatory system of the animal is thereby regulated The real issue was the animal's sheer weight—100 kilograms from the trunk alone not to mention the added mass of the tusks But the braces can relieve the need to wear the retainer if necessary And to support its enormous weight the elephant has very special feet Each has five fingers that aren't visible because they're internal They stand upright when the paw is not bearing weight But when the foot lands they spring apart to act as shock absorbers Elephants are very different from hippos and rhinoceroses They belong to a different family and have a different social structure and they don't live the same life Beyond their bare skin their massive frames and their vegetarian diet something nonetheless draws them together They have endured through the ages to reach us Proof that these are proven models including this one which today seems to us the least advanced Rhinos could undoubtedly still live unchanged 10 000 100 or 500 000 years They have the formula for survival and no predators And yet in 20 10 or 5 years they could vanish forever The man could through his greed abruptly halt the long history of these living fossils The threat is everywhere The demand for horn and ivory combined with pressure on habitat The great carnivores had already vanished Stiffened by its crust standing tall this rhinoceros may foretell a bad day where meeting this giant would be nothing but an illusion upon seeing a muddy rock