African Safari-SD

  • 5 months ago
African Safari-SD
Transcript
00:00:30Wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-we
00:01:00Wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee
00:01:30Magnificent mountains like Kirimanjaro in Tanzania
00:01:35And colossal cataracts like Victoria Falls on the Zambezi
00:01:39Victoria is twice as high as Niagara
00:01:47Some of Africa's birds are so large you can feed a family of ten from a single ostrich egg
00:02:01Africa has its share of weird and wonderful creatures like the chameleon
00:02:06which has its eyes set in turrets
00:02:08While one looks straight up, the other can look straight down all at the same instant
00:02:12That's what the boss should have in the office
00:02:17One of the oddest creatures in Africa is the pangolin
00:02:21Although it is a mammal, it has scales like a reptile
00:02:25Termites are the wrecking crew of Africa
00:02:28In one week they can completely devour a thatched native hut
00:02:32carrying the bits and pieces of grass into their underground fortress
00:02:41Africa has its share of poisonous creatures like the boomslang, a deadly tree snake
00:02:47And there is the puff adder, which literally walks on its ventral muscles
00:02:53And there is the tsetse fly, which transmits the dreaded sleeping sickness
00:02:58It feeds solely on blood, which it sucks from the skin of its victim
00:03:02In this case, the arm of a Briton in Tanzania
00:03:09After a full meal of blood, his body is taken to the hospital
00:03:14After a full meal of blood, his abdomen is so distended he can hardly fly
00:03:20Many of Africa's plants are equipped with defensive devices to help them survive
00:03:28But some of Africa's creatures lose in a conflict for survival
00:03:32Fish are constantly dying in the jaws of crocodiles
00:03:36A turtle dove falls prey to a fast-flying falcon
00:03:41Predators must prey on others, for without death there would be no life
00:03:46And here in Africa, life constantly regenerates itself
00:03:57Young antelope are thrust into a strange and often cruel world
00:04:03They are frequently the victims of crocodiles
00:04:11They are also often the victims of lions
00:04:14They are also often the victims of lions
00:04:44But large animals, like the cape buffalo, are sometimes, though not always, successful in beating off an attack by the king of beasts
00:04:51But large animals, like the cape buffalo, are sometimes, though not always, successful in beating off an attack by the king of beasts
00:05:52A lioness locked her jaws on the throat of this wildebeest in a vice-like grip, from which it could not escape
00:06:04A lioness locked her jaws on the throat of this wildebeest in a vice-like grip, from which it could not escape
00:06:09it could not escape.
00:06:15Newborn crocodiles rarely survive beyond the first week, falling easy victim to servals,
00:06:21civets, birds of prey, and even their own parents.
00:06:30Crocodiles have much to fear from giant eagles.
00:06:40The marshal eagle is the largest and fiercest eagle on the continent of Africa.
00:06:44He has a wingspan of about seven feet, and he eats monkeys, snakes, lizards, rabbits
00:06:49and rodents.
00:06:51He is a very powerful, very spirited bird.
00:07:17Baby leopards have much to fear from other predators until they grow big and strong
00:07:21enough to defend themselves.
00:07:28And Africa has its share of large, dangerous animals like the rhinoceros.
00:07:33The natives of Africa are just as unusual as its wild creatures.
00:07:37For example, there is the Banyaruanda tribe of the former Belgian Congo, which has the
00:07:42odd custom of chipping their teeth to points because, in their estimation, it enhances
00:07:47their beauty.
00:07:48And besides, they can make out better in a fight.
00:07:52When this fellow bites, he's going to make a good impression.
00:07:56They strike the top of a knife blade with a steel rod, and with each strike, they knock
00:08:01a chip off the tooth.
00:08:03It's a very painful process, and this man will have great difficulty eating or drinking
00:08:06for about three weeks.
00:08:08And believe it or not, he actually pays to have this done.
00:08:19Now let's see what progress he made with that lower tooth.
00:08:26A bit of an argument ensues because the patient, or should I say the victim, is willing to
00:08:30pay five francs, but the dentist wants ten francs.
00:08:36This woman is very excited about the whole thing.
00:08:46Some men earn their living by capturing Africa's wild creatures for sale to zoos.
00:08:51One of them is yours truly, capturing a python in Zambia.
00:08:55The technique is to stand just outside of striking range.
00:08:59You have to watch for his teeth.
00:09:00He has long, sharp teeth.
00:09:02And then at the right moment, you grab him by the head.
00:09:08I packed this python in a comfortable wooden crate and sent him by air to my tax collector
00:09:13as a Christmas present.
00:09:20This python is larger than the first.
00:09:22The larger they are, the easier they are to catch because the slower they strike.
00:09:26But of course, the longer their teeth, so you have to exercise a little more care.
00:09:38This snake weighed more than 100 pounds.
00:09:45I travel across the vast expanses of Africa in my pickup truck.
00:09:49And my objectives on this trip, in addition to capturing animals for zoos, are to bring
00:09:53back specimens of a new subspecies of Egyptian cobra for the American Museum of Natural History.
00:09:59And to assist Uganda government surveyors in mapping an unexplored section of the Mountains
00:10:04of the Moon.
00:10:05And to get a taste of high adventure in the years that lay ahead.
00:10:14I often travel off the road and sometimes my only means of navigation is a compass.
00:10:24If I head for the ridge in the center, I'll be right on course.
00:10:30I pitched my camp here in Tanzania and one day as I walked to my safari truck, I saw
00:10:35a startling sight.
00:10:38A full-grown cheetah.
00:10:39I ran for my rifle because in this district, cheetah are classed as vermin since they kill
00:10:44so many domestic animals and the government encouraged me to collect any I found.
00:10:48But cheetah are the fastest four-legged animals in the world.
00:11:05Chances are this fellow is half a mile away by now.
00:11:10In most countries and colonies of Africa, cheetah are classed as royal game.
00:11:14That is, you are not permitted to shoot them under any circumstances.
00:11:18But in this district, it's just the reverse.
00:11:20Oh well, it's a nice sunny day so I think I'll go for a walk to the felt and see what
00:11:25wildlife this district holds in store for me.
00:11:34This rhino is standing just about where I have to walk because there is marshy ground
00:11:39to both left and right.
00:11:41I'm going to skirt as far to the left as I can but I don't want to provoke him if I can
00:11:45help it since I don't have a rhino on my game license.
00:11:52This rhino weighs about two tons so game license or no game license, I'm going to slip a cartridge
00:11:56into the chamber just in case but I'm not going to shoot if I can possibly help it.
00:12:12One step closer and he would have gotten a bullet.
00:12:19Nope, you just can't go for a walk nowadays.
00:12:28Rubies.
00:12:29Tanzania is rich in minerals, particularly in gemstones.
00:12:34And practically every rock on this outcropping had about eight or ten rubies in it.
00:12:43These are genuine rubies.
00:12:46But I didn't have a geologist's hammer or a pick and I couldn't very well get them out
00:12:51with my fingernails or my teeth so they're still there.
00:13:10I got out my pocket chart and made a notation of exactly where this place is in case I decide
00:13:15to come back someday and put a road through here.
00:13:22Here in Tanzania, flies are a scourge to man and beast alike.
00:13:28Looks like a couple of Thompson's Gazelles squaring off for some sort of match.
00:13:36Don't look now but I think there's going to be a fight.
00:13:43I knew it.
00:13:44I knew it.
00:13:48I fought like that once and just look what happened to me.
00:13:58By George, looks like a fight.
00:14:05Lions, a pride of six, one hiding up in some rocks and five out in the open.
00:14:15The best thing to do in a case like this is to walk right on past and show no sign of
00:14:19fear because contrary to what most people think, lions do not normally eat people.
00:14:24If you run from a lion, he's bound to give chase.
00:14:27That is the worst possible thing you could do.
00:14:34But lions are like people.
00:14:35They all have different personalities.
00:14:37Where one will decamp, another will stand his ground.
00:14:48This third fellow seemed even less inclined to move than the first two.
00:14:55The next two didn't even look friendly.
00:14:58What's the hair on the back of his neck?
00:15:01Nope, they're just putting on a performance.
00:15:08This is simply a demonstration to try to frighten me off.
00:15:11They don't really mean it.
00:15:16This last fellow was a downright coward.
00:15:32Guinea fowl are common here on the plains of Central Africa, but they have many natural
00:15:36enemies and they must be constantly on the alert because sometimes death stalks just
00:15:41around the corner.
00:15:47In the uppermost branches of a tree high overhead sits an African hawk eagle and he scans these
00:15:52Guinea fowl very intently because he is hungry.
00:16:06This is how he captures his prey.
00:16:15Like all birds of prey, he kills with his talons, not with his beak.
00:16:19Birds of prey use their beaks only for shredding meat into bite-sized pieces and do not attack
00:16:24or defend themselves with their beaks.
00:16:43Vultures.
00:16:44Hundreds of vultures.
00:16:46And as I look below, I see the cause of it.
00:16:50A hyena is dragging a wildebeest carcass through the water.
00:16:54He's got it there so the vultures and jackals can't get to it.
00:16:57He's been feeding on it for so long he just can't take another bite, but he'll be darned
00:17:02if he'll let anybody else have any.
00:17:06Vultures wait patiently.
00:17:10Others soar overhead.
00:17:22And the jackals wait patiently.
00:17:36Well now it looks like he's had his fill and the vultures wade in.
00:17:52Vultures spend more time fighting with one another than they do in getting down to eating.
00:17:58They never do seem to get along with their own kind.
00:18:05I found a baby chimpanzee and at first she was trembling with fear, but in a few minutes
00:18:10she grabbed my jacket with her little fists as if she was looking for protection from
00:18:13the big bad world around her.
00:18:15I guess she thought I looked like a reasonable facsimile of her mother.
00:18:19I called her Trudy and she now lives in a zoo in America.
00:18:22At this point she had a tummy like a beach ball and a face like a dried up prune.
00:18:37She was a very clever little ape.
00:18:39Within three or four days I taught her to come to me when I called her by name, which
00:18:43is pretty good going for a wild creature.
00:18:57Next day her relatives paid me a social call and stole some food from my truck.
00:19:26I loaded my truck with animals for the trip to the nearest airport.
00:19:30This is a cheetah cub.
00:19:39Next a large crate of colorful East African lovebirds, also known as fisher's parakeets.
00:19:50Then we loaded boxes of poisonous snakes.
00:19:57I extended the range of my truck from the normal 300 miles to better than 1,000 miles
00:20:02by carrying these spare jerry cans.
00:20:18Now watch how Trudy grabs my bush jacket with her little fists.
00:20:22Once she gets hold of me like that you just can't get her off.
00:20:25If you try she will scream and cry like a little baby and it's tough to drive with her
00:20:29between you and the wheel, but she's just got to sit right there.
00:20:37On the way I saw some Thompson's gazelles, which are characterized by their windshield
00:20:41wipers in the rear.
00:20:47Their chief natural enemy is the wild dog, which gangs up in packs and runs them down.
00:20:54Another one of their natural enemies is the lion.
00:20:57It's no secret this fellow just had a full meal.
00:21:00But their fleet footedness is the thing that saves them because they can generally outrun
00:21:04their predators.
00:21:08I saw many wildebeest which were having their young about this time of year.
00:21:23The men of the village don't do this and they think the women are absolutely mad.
00:21:29They paint their faces the same way but this pigment lasts only about three or four days
00:21:34so they have to go through this whole process at least twice a week.
00:21:42Little boys played strange games that I never could quite figure out.
00:21:47A unique thing about pygmies is that without exception all the women have masculine faces.
00:22:02Then the chief showed me their favorite musical instrument which they call a lukambi.
00:22:07It is a hollow wooden sounding board on which they have mounted flattened steel nails and
00:22:11oddly enough it is exactly the same sort of instrument natives use in widely scattered
00:22:15parts of Africa.
00:22:19I asked the pygmies if they would like to go for a ride in my truck.
00:22:22They thought this would be a great and glorious adventure.
00:22:25The whole village turned out in single file.
00:22:43Sixty seconds after I drove up I had 39 pygmies on top of and inside of my truck.
00:22:48I bet the Ford Motor Company never knew they could carry this many people.
00:22:55This fellow said he had a spear he would like to trade with me.
00:23:06I just happened to have a piece of cloth I bought in Nairobi for this purpose.
00:23:11Aha, that really struck his fancy.
00:23:15Well it's a trade.
00:23:16The spear is mine, the cloth is his.
00:23:18We each thought we got a bargain.
00:23:33This fellow that made the trade with me is a very bashful pygmy.
00:23:36He wants to go for a ride in the truck too but he doesn't want to brazenly climb aboard
00:23:41without first asking my permission.
00:23:43I never saw such a polite pygmy before.
00:23:46And now we're off for an exciting ride at all of two miles per hour.
00:23:53I was afraid that if I went any faster I'd lose those fellows on top.
00:23:57After living with these tiny people for a few weeks I visited a Bantu village at the
00:24:02edge of the forest.
00:24:12It was here that I saw how they operate their old-fashioned muzzle loaders.
00:24:17They pour some black powder down the barrel, slide in a paper seal, then drop in a piece
00:24:39of lead fashioned to the shape of a bullet.
00:24:42Whoops, time out for snuff.
00:24:43He can't do his work properly without snuff.
00:24:46He puts as much powder up his nose as he puts down the barrel.
00:24:54Now he cocks the hammer and puts a percussion cap on the striker base.
00:25:02Then he slowly closes the hammer down on it.
00:25:04Now all he has to do in order to fire is simply cock the hammer.
00:25:09Now he's going to demonstrate his prowess with this noisy weapon.
00:25:22Missed by 15 feet.
00:25:26When I arrived in Uganda I made arrangements with a game ranger to use the launch which
00:25:30the government put at his disposal because I'm searching for monitor lizards and these
00:25:34four foot lizards frequent the banks of rivers in Central Africa.
00:25:39I'm now on the Victoria Nile between Lake Victoria and Lake Albert and I'm going to
00:25:43scan both banks carefully for these giant monitors.
00:25:59On the way I saw many of the colorful birds which are so characteristic of this part of
00:26:03Africa.
00:26:04Marabou storks, pelicans, Egyptian geese, darters and cormorants.
00:26:13This hippo ran along an underwater plateau and then suddenly he stepped off the edge.
00:26:24A yellow-billed kite spotted a dead fish floating on the surface and he swooped down
00:26:35and snatched it up in his talons.
00:26:40I saw many crocodiles along the banks of this river.
00:26:50Then I saw some cattle egrets landing on a mud bank.
00:26:56Ah-ha, it wasn't a mud bank at all.
00:27:00It was a herd of sleeping hippos.
00:27:02You get lots of surprises out here.
00:27:14Crocodiles often wander far from water at night but seldom more than eight or ten feet
00:27:18from it during daylight hours.
00:27:24They have the odd custom of sleeping with their mouths wide open.
00:27:28Notice all the flies in this fellow's mouth.
00:27:32Boy, I hope those flies don't drown.
00:27:41Then I saw some hippos kissing and a couple play fighting.
00:27:57Monitor lizards, just what I was looking for.
00:28:00They're digging in a hole in the sand bank for turtle eggs.
00:28:04Monitors like eggs of all kinds, birds' eggs, crocodile eggs and turtle eggs.
00:28:08When they find one, they gulp it down voraciously.
00:28:22I disembarked at a landing that the game ranger had erected nearby and I instructed the crew
00:28:27to return before nightfall with my natives and my camping gear.
00:28:31Meanwhile, I'm going to survey this area for a campsite which will serve as a base for
00:28:35capturing these giant lizards.
00:28:46The next morning while my camp was under construction, I went out for a walk and on what was practically
00:28:51my front lawn, there was a monitor.
00:29:15I made a rush for him, but he turned the tables on me and for a minute I was wondering who
00:29:19was trying to capture whom.
00:29:21He has very powerful jaws and sharp teeth and you must be very careful how you grab
00:29:25him not to lose a finger.
00:29:42Well now it's all over but to grab him by the head, but this is easier said than done
00:29:47because he's not going to cooperate one bit.
00:29:52This is what is known as having a lizard by the tail.
00:30:08I packed him in a comfortable wooden crate and sent him off by air express to my animal
00:30:12agent in America.
00:30:20I packed my animals and my gear in my truck and I headed for the Serengeti plains of Tanzania.
00:31:03At about this time of the year, lionesses are having their young on the Serengeti plains.
00:31:22They usually have three or four cubs to a litter and stay with them for about two years
00:31:27to protect them from danger when they're tiny and to teach them the fine art of hunting.
00:31:33Lion cubs don't know all the fine points of stalking their prey by instinct.
00:31:37They have to learn these through long hard hours of instruction from their mother.
00:31:41If they make a mistake, they get cuffed good and hard and they learn mighty fast.
00:31:52Lions show real affection for one another pretty much as in the case of human beings.
00:31:56They have a very closely knit family life.
00:32:03But when a lioness has her young, she is usually in a very nasty protective disposition and
00:32:08this is no time to disturb her or to get too close.
00:32:15But she is very patient and accommodating toward her cubs.
00:32:18She is literally a mobile milk bar out here in the hot dusty plains of Tanzania.
00:32:25A unique thing about lionesses is that they will nurse cubs from another litter besides
00:32:29their own.
00:32:30They never cared less whose cubs they are.
00:32:32For example, here you'll see that one cub is much larger than the others which shows
00:32:37that this lioness is babysitting for another lioness who's gone off hunting.
00:32:41Sort of a cooperative society.
00:32:44Yep, life is one big bowl of cherries when you're a lion cub.
00:32:50Ma and Pa do all the work and you have all the fun.
00:32:53These cubs will be full grown lions in less than three years.
00:32:57Adult males weigh about 450 pounds.
00:33:00Adult females about 350 pounds.
00:33:11Animals can tell when lions are out to make a kill and when they know that they're not,
00:33:36they will stand by and let one pass very closely.
00:33:40It's sort of a sixth sense that animals have that lets them know this.
00:33:43But these wildebeest and zebra know that this old boy is up to no good so they give him
00:33:47a wide berth.
00:33:48Actually, he is frightening them to a point downwind where the lionesses are lying in
00:33:53wait with their cubs because it is the lionesses that usually do the killing for a pride, not
00:33:58the males.
00:33:59Males will condescend to help but they leave the dirty work up to the ladies, pretty much
00:34:03as in the case of human beings.
00:34:08There is not a tree for miles around and it's 110 degrees in the shade.
00:34:27Boy I wish that old man would hurry up and bring home the bacon.
00:34:32So he accommodates and shifts into second.
00:34:40Now he shifts into high.
00:34:42And this ostrich decides this is no place for him.
00:34:47And these two hardebeest say, boy, let's get out of here.
00:34:50This is no place for us.
00:35:10In less than an hour, there is nothing left but skin and bones.
00:35:15Lions know what it is to go hungry.
00:35:17As they do without meat for four or five days.
00:35:20So when they have a kill, they make the most of it while it's available.
00:35:23They literally gorge themselves, leaving nothing behind if they can possibly help it.
00:35:34Now I headed north and on the way I crossed an improvised log bridge.
00:35:39The unsettling thing about these bridges is that you never know what load they're built
00:35:42to withstand until you get to the other side, then it might be too late.
00:35:49On the way I saw one of the most fabulous sights in all of Africa.
00:35:54Colombo Falls, the highest waterfall on the continent, twice as high as Victoria, a 720
00:36:00foot drop.
00:36:01It's situated way down at the southern tip of Lake Tanzania on the Tanzania-Zambia border.
00:36:17This waterfall is so high, the entire river atomizes before it strikes bottom.
00:36:23So it's a perfectly silent waterfall.
00:36:25There's no thunder here whatsoever.
00:36:28Its name Colombo means greatest of the great in the local vernacular.
00:36:48Zebras have few pleasures in life, but this is one of them.
00:36:58On the way I discovered that I had several broken spring blades and I took time out to
00:37:02apply homemade steel clamps.
00:37:05During the years that this safari lasted, I had 19 broken spring blades and 15 flat
00:37:09tires.
00:37:10I brought this truck to Africa on a freighter and sold it in Cape Town a few years later.
00:37:15It is now owned by a man in the suburbs who uses it for selling vegetables.
00:37:24These natives really were a great help.
00:37:26I don't know what I would have done without them.
00:37:54I made a base camp here and one day as I returned from a hunt, I heard a very strange
00:37:58sound.
00:38:05Two young leopards.
00:38:12I took a quick look around for mother leopard because she would be very displeased if she
00:38:16knew I was going to adopt her cubs.
00:38:19They were about three weeks old and weighed two pounds a piece.
00:38:21I called them Sputnik and Mutnik.
00:38:30As far as I know, mother leopard never did follow me back to camp.
00:38:34At least I never saw her.
00:38:37They were so tiny, they just didn't know what fear was.
00:38:40They are now full grown and they live in the zoo in Rochester, New York.
00:38:49I had some dehydrated milk already prepared for my baby antelope and of course I always
00:38:54carry baby bottles with me when I'm on safari.
00:38:57They're one of the most useful items of equipment.
00:39:15Mother leopard must have been away a long, long time.
00:39:18I fed them up on calcium gluconate, cod liver oil, vitamins, milk and meat and they doubled
00:39:23their weight in a month.
00:39:25Leopards are easy to raise and they make wonderful pets.
00:39:36One day as they were playing at my feet, one of my natives shouted.
00:39:45There he was, a black mamba, the fastest and deadliest snake in Africa.
00:39:52I ran for my snake stick because these snakes are highly sought after by zoos in America
00:39:56and I'm going to try to capture him alive.
00:39:59The poison of a mamba acts very much like the poison of a cobra, paralyzing the nerve
00:40:03centers of the body, but it acts much more quickly than cobra venom.
00:40:09I had no serum for the bite of a mamba so I had to be very careful how I handled it.
00:40:21Mambas have the characteristic of traveling with their heads held high above the ground
00:40:25which makes it very difficult to pin them down.
00:40:36When a mamba is angry, he flattens his neck.
00:40:43There, now I have his head pinned down.
00:40:54And now it's all over but to pick him up and pop him into a sack and send him by air to
00:40:58America.
00:40:59He is perfectly uninjured and in excellent condition and he measured exactly eight feet
00:41:04long.
00:41:08Mambas are long, thin, graceful snakes and they have real poise.
00:41:18But life on safari has its more prosaic moments.
00:41:21For example, sometimes you have to hang up your pajamas.
00:41:26And there are camp pets that require attention from time to time.
00:41:31Natives come to me constantly looking for medical care like this Maasai tribesman who
00:41:35has a bad eye infection.
00:41:37These tribal natives look upon all Europeans camped in remote bush country as doctors.
00:41:44They believe we all have magical powers and every day I have at least three or four natives
00:41:48coming to me looking for medical care.
00:41:55I gave him some penicillin capsules and a cup of water.
00:41:58But if you remember, these Maasai drink about as much water as a Frenchman so I had a devil
00:42:03of a time getting him to swallow these capsules.
00:42:17Notice how reluctant he is about the whole thing.
00:42:21Nope, he doesn't think much of that drink.
00:42:31I asked this fine looking tribesman to come back the next morning for some more penicillin.
00:42:35His trouble was cleared up in one week.
00:42:44There are lots of chores to take care of around camp.
00:42:46My baby reed buck needed her bottle every four or five hours.
00:42:59And Trudy whooped and hollered like a little girl looking for attention.
00:43:04And I had to take time out occasionally for a bath for myself.
00:43:07And out here there was such a water shortage that I had to bathe in dishwater and save
00:43:11the water after the bath.
00:43:16Meanwhile Sputnik and Mutnik fought over last night's kudu bone.
00:43:26Leopards grow very fast and in just seven months these leopards grew to be a real armful.
00:43:31But chimps don't grow nearly as fast as leopards and every time I took these beasts out of
00:43:35the compound Trudy ran for the truck.
00:43:43She wanted no part of these animals anymore.
00:43:48Old Sputnik loved to play rough house and you just couldn't be too rough with him.
00:43:52You could drop him and kick him and step on him right up to the point of breaking his
00:43:56ribs and he'd come back for more, he loved it.
00:43:59But the thing he loved the best was to be laid on his back and tickled.
00:44:16Sputnik had a passion for going to the back of my neck.
00:44:19After I'd played rough house with him the back of my neck was scratched and bleeding
00:44:23But of course it was all in fun.
00:44:38Sputnik weighed about 75 pounds at this point.
00:44:47Boy, I wish he'd leave the back of my neck alone.
00:45:03Sputnik's favorite playmate was Jackie, a dog that belonged to a professional hunter
00:45:07in Livingston.
00:45:08And although they were about the same size and weight, you can see that nature intended
00:45:12them for entirely different functions by the difference in the size of their paws.
00:45:18These two fellas were fast friends.
00:45:20They really loved each other.
00:45:27These are two lions in the Springs Game Reserve in the Transvaal.
00:45:32I included these pictures to show that alongside of Sputnik and Mutnik, these two fellas had
00:45:36absolutely no manners whatsoever.
00:45:38They are not my lions, I'm just visiting them.
00:45:48Each time I played with these beasts it cost me a shirt, a pair of pants and a bit of hide.
00:46:09Here's the beginning of the end of my shirt.
00:46:24One day a little boy came running to my camp and told me that a native in the nearby village
00:46:29had been bitten by a cobra a few hours before.
00:46:36I grabbed my hypodermic syringe and serum and I followed him.
00:46:56But I was too late.
00:47:09I heard a native woman shout, Noha, which in the Selozi language means snake.
00:47:17It was an Egyptian cobra.
00:47:19I couldn't find a stick long enough to pin him down with, so I'll use a twig and capture
00:47:24him by distracting his attention with the kerchief while I grab his jaws from behind
00:47:29with the other hand.
00:47:30He is a very deadly snake and I've got to be certain of my aim.
00:47:35This is my helper.
00:47:54This is the snake the American Museum of Natural History was looking for.
00:48:22They believe that Egyptian cobras from this district are a new subspecies, so I sent him
00:48:27off to the museum by air express.
00:48:39A couple of months later I pitched my camp in a village of bushmen and recorded their
00:48:43strange language for a professor of anthropology in America.
00:48:47I asked this bushman to tell me how he collected honey in the forest and I took it down on
00:48:51my tape recorder.
00:48:59And then I played it back to him.
00:49:09He refused to believe that that was his own voice.
00:49:12When it was all over he told me that the little man in the black box said exactly the same
00:49:16thing the same way he did.
00:49:24After recording his voice for posterity I gave him some stainless steel mirrors and
00:49:28inexpensive knives.
00:49:30Then I had a chat with the induna, or local chief.
00:49:34He had a sad story to tell me.
00:49:36He said that a lion had killed their hunting dogs.
00:49:39This was a real catastrophe for them because they depended upon their dogs to help them
00:49:43get fresh meat.
00:49:45He asked me if I would shoot the lion.
00:49:47I promised I would look for him the next day and shoot him if possible.
00:49:54I started out the next morning with my two best Bantu trackers from the carcass of one
00:49:59of the dogs which showed lots of fresh lion tracks.
00:50:03Judging by the size of the tracks he was a very large lion indeed and judging by the
00:50:07freshness he was very close.
00:50:09We knew we would come upon him in a matter of minutes.
00:50:39In Diyobwana, Banduki Piga Simba, which in Swahili means yes guana, the gun did strike
00:51:46After me, George.
00:52:13The third shot went through his spine and he died just as he struck me.
00:52:22He was a full grown male that weighed about 450 pounds.
00:52:26I asked my native to go to the nearest village and bring back a lot of others to help carry
00:52:30this beast back to the camp for skinning.
00:52:37That African who is waving his arms in the foreground was accidentally shot and killed
00:52:41the next day by another native with the same rifle that shot that lion.
00:52:46It is a good object lesson in the fact that you can never be too careful in the handling
00:52:49of firearms.
00:53:19Then I headed for Fort Portal, Uganda, where I had been invited by the government to witness
00:53:24the rare event of exploration in modern times.
00:53:29There is a huge marketplace here for natives.
00:53:32Fort Portal is the traditional jumping off point for expeditions up the mountains of
00:53:36the moon, otherwise known as the Rwenzori Range.
00:53:39And it was here that I met with the chief mapper for Uganda.
00:53:42He explained that the government is sending an expedition to the top of the mountains
00:53:46of the moon to map the upper reaches of the Nyamagosani River, which has never been seen
00:53:51or mapped above the 7,000 foot level before.
00:53:54He explained that the river valley is constantly shrouded in clouds and aerial photos have
00:53:59shown nothing of it because of the solid cloud coverage.
00:54:04According to the government, no one to their knowledge has ever set foot in that river
00:54:07valley above the 7,000 foot level before.
00:54:12Three weeks later, we started out at the north end of Lake Edward with 50 African porters.
00:54:17The first order of business was a negotiation over wages and this consumed exactly two hours.
00:54:33After compromising on a wage, we got together the food for the porters.
00:54:38We had 150 pounds of dried hippo meat, 600 pounds of peanuts, 1,200 pounds of cassava
00:54:43flour and a live goat and sheep to provide fresh meat.
00:54:48We doled out blankets because where we're going, the altitude is high and the temperature
00:54:53is low.
00:54:54Rwenzori is higher than any of the Alps in Europe.
00:54:57The summit is at 16,800 feet above sea level and there's ice at the top year round.
00:55:03Headloads were weighed out at 50 pounds apiece.
00:55:06We have a 50-mile walk ahead of us because we're crossing the range in the long direction
00:55:10from south to north.
00:55:23Now starts a long, hard three-week climb which cost us the life of one man before it was
00:55:29finished.
00:55:33Cheetah wandered in off the plains to the foothills of Rwenzori.
00:55:39And it was here that we saw more than a dozen different kinds of lizards.
00:55:44The streams were numbingly cold because they were the runoff from glaciers.
00:55:59We saw lots of game in the rainforest on the approach.
00:56:07Even a few pythons.
00:56:12Soon we left far below us the villages from which our Bakonjo tribesmen came.
00:56:18We picked these Bakonjo because they live in the foothills and are accustomed to carrying
00:56:22heavy loads up steep slopes.
00:56:24They are tough, wiry Africans.
00:56:28The chimps that we saw along the way were talking to each other in Chimpanese.
00:56:36We chopped firewood at the end of the seventh day at an elevation of about 7,000 feet.
00:56:43Some of us camped in a clearing on the right.
00:56:52And some on the left.
00:56:58One of our men caught a tree hyrax in a snare and they carved it up for supper that night.
00:57:17It was here that we saw the typical creeping, crawling creatures so characteristic of this
00:57:22part of Africa, including the safari ant, the most insidious insect in all of Africa
00:57:27bar none.
00:57:30At the end of the eighth day, our natives collected moss for mattresses.
00:57:36And they broke out their cassava flour, which is made by grinding the roots of the manioc
00:57:40tree.
00:57:41This is their staple diet.
00:57:42They mix it with water, stir it over a fire, and roll it into little balls and pop it into
00:57:47their mouths.
00:57:49And it tastes terrible.
00:58:03But they love it.
00:58:06They also had mutton for the evening meal.
00:58:12We didn't go much for the cassava flour, so we broke out some tin goods.
00:58:21The man on the left is the head of the Department of Lands and Surveys for the Uganda government.
00:58:38And this is a British mountain climber who was invited to guide us across the ice fields.
00:58:43He's had considerable experience climbing the Himalayas of Tibet.
00:58:47And this seedy-looking character is yours truly.
00:58:54After a satisfying meal, the boys fashioned pipes from long-stemmed jungle plants.
00:59:10And then the clouds rolled in.
00:59:12Rwenzori is almost constantly shrouded in clouds.
00:59:21In a few minutes, the visibility dropped to a few yards and it was cold and clammy.
00:59:25This is typical Rwenzori weather.
00:59:42Next morning, we got up early.
00:59:45We took sightings on the elevations of nearby peaks and found in many instances the latest
00:59:50government charts were in error.
00:59:56And now the temperature dropped close to the freezing point.
01:00:02There is the valley through which the government suspects the Nyamagosani River flows.
01:00:06They're not sure because it has never been seen above the 7,000-foot level before and
01:00:11we are much higher than that now.
01:00:13As usual, it is shrouded in heavy mist.
01:00:16And there is the source of that river at 13,500 feet above sea level.
01:00:21This is the first time it has ever been seen or filmed.
01:00:25The river had an eerie appearance because it was so heavily shrouded in mist.
01:00:29We wanted to map the upper reaches of this river, but we were defeated by logistics because
01:00:34we had a seven-day march to a point where an advance party had cashed away food for
01:00:38the porters at a forward base and had only a seven-day supply of porter food remaining,
01:00:43which meant that we had to start out the very next day if we were to keep from running out
01:00:47of food.
01:00:48This happened because our porters were eating at a higher rate than we had calculated on.
01:00:59The river flowed through a forest which was festooned with hanging moss.
01:01:14We saw a placid pool at the 12,000-foot level.
01:01:18We checked our charts for the best approach to the rock divide which separates us from
01:01:21the snow peaks, which is where the advance party had cashed away the food.
01:01:26It now starts the hardest, coldest part of the climb.
01:01:37It rained for 17 days out of the three weeks, which made the rocks doubly slippery and treacherous.
01:01:47All of our gear was constantly soaking because of the incessant rain and because the sun
01:01:51never shone long enough for us to dry it out.
01:01:55When the temperature dropped below freezing, we found we often had ice in the tent in the
01:01:58mornings.
01:02:00One of the men in the advance party died of pneumonia four days after they crossed the
01:02:03tree line.
01:02:04He was a 31-year-old Briton.
01:02:18This is the first time in my life that I had ever climbed a really big mountain, and it
01:02:21will probably be the last.
01:02:29We saw a lake which was discovered two years previously, but which remained unnamed.
01:02:34It is the policy of the Uganda government to name new geographical features after local
01:02:39names.
01:02:40Our guide said he calls it Kachopi.
01:02:42Henceforth, on all government charts, this will be known as Lake Kachopi.
01:02:47This is the top of the rock divide which separates us from the snow peaks.
01:03:11And there at the foot of this glacier are two tiny huts.
01:03:14From one of these, the advance party cashed away food and left behind one of their men
01:03:19who's been awaiting our arrival for one week.
01:03:30Needless to say, he was very pleased to see us.
01:03:35He is a young Oxford graduate who is now in the government service in Tanzania.
01:03:42He said that he had taken sightings on the elevation and azimuths of nearby peaks and
01:03:46found many errors in the latest government charts just as we have.
01:03:50It's not hard to realize when you consider that Rwenzori was discovered less than 100
01:03:54years ago, and a good deal of the upper reaches still remain incompletely mapped.
01:04:05After a warm meal in his hut, we started out across the ice fields which, believe it or
01:04:09not, are right on the equator.
01:04:11There is ice up here all year round.
01:04:14We are at the top of Stanley Mountain at the very summit of the Mountains of the Moon with
01:04:18Uganda on our left and the Congo on our right.
01:04:26These glaciers are actually rivers of ice.
01:04:41Our progress here dropped to less than one half mile per day, not only because of the
01:04:45rarefied air, but because of the steepness of some of the glaciers that we had to cross.
01:04:51There were huge crevasses which were about 200 feet deep, covered by a thin crust of
01:04:56ice, and we had to be very careful how we walked across these areas not to fall through.
01:05:01These are the very first drops of the White Nile from a glacier melting at the top of
01:05:05Rwenzori.
01:05:07These drops join together with the drops from other glaciers to form tiny rivulets which
01:05:11race down the rocky faces.
01:05:13These rivulets join together to form little streams that run through the vegetation a
01:05:17few thousand feet below, and the streams combine to form a real river which ultimately becomes
01:05:23the mighty Nile of Egypt.
01:05:29At this point, the entire volume of the Nile surges through a narrow cleft of rock only
01:05:3419 feet wide as it races toward Lake Albert.
01:05:39There is tremendous thunder and power in this tiny little chasm.
01:05:47So it is here, on the roof of Africa, that the Nile is born nearly 4,000 miles from its
01:05:53mouth in the Mediterranean.
01:05:57From rivers of ice to mountains of fire, less than 100 miles from Rwenzori, a volcano was
01:06:03in full eruption.
01:06:05I asked the owner of a light plane if he would fly me over it.
01:06:08He said he would be pleased to as he'd seen the smoke from the eruption a few days before
01:06:12and was just as curious to see it at close range as I was.
01:06:16This volcano was born from a perfectly flat forest when a fissure suddenly opened up in
01:06:21the ground and molten lava flew skyward.
01:06:23It was one of the rare instances in recorded times that a volcano was born from a perfectly
01:06:28flat surface.
01:06:44We saw great destruction to the forest below us as a result of the lava flows.
01:06:50A river of molten lava flowed for 16 miles through the forest, causing the destruction
01:06:55of thousands of acres of woodland.
01:06:57Those patches of white are steam resulting from the rain that's falling now, vaporizing
01:07:27We felt intense heat inside the cockpit on the side facing the eruption.
01:07:49This is how the sun looked through the column of steam coming out of the crater.
01:08:06Back down on the ground, I hired four Congolese to carry my photo and camping gear and we
01:08:10went on a foot safari to get a closer look.
01:08:13The acid fallout from the crater killed all the vegetation for a radius of 20 miles.
01:08:19The trees are completely denuded of their leaves from the acid fallout.
01:08:25The lava fields were very, very hot and we had to step lively.
01:08:42It was raining and when the rain struck the hot lava, it vaporized instantly, cutting
01:08:47our visibility down to a few yards.
01:08:49At times we didn't know whether we were walking toward the volcano or away from it.
01:08:53The only way we could tell was by homing in on the tremendous roar and sometimes this
01:08:58was very deceptive.
01:09:03We had to call to each other constantly to keep from being separated and in spite of
01:09:07that, one of my natives was lost for more than an hour.
01:09:14When the rain stopped, the visibility cleared and we found this kingfisher which apparently
01:09:18died from the intense gases coming out of the crater.
01:09:22Now we were walking across scoriaceous lava, that is huge blocks of very jagged lava which
01:09:27is sharp as glass and you must be very careful how you walk across it not to let the calves
01:09:33of your legs rub against it or it would cut them to ribbons.
01:09:46When we were within half a mile of the eruption, we were walking on about 14 inches of porous
01:09:51black ash which crunched audibly as we stepped across it.
01:09:55Some of this light black ash was being carried more than 20 miles away by the winds aloft.
01:10:03Molten lava flowed around tree trunks and the intense heat consumed the lower part of
01:10:06the trunk, leaving gaping holes and you had to be very careful not to step in one of these.
01:10:15The temperature of molten lava is about 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit or about the same as molten
01:10:21steel.
01:10:28I threw a rock in this river of molten lava and it bounced and floated because it was
01:10:33the same density as the river itself.
01:10:45There were huge boulders floating in the river, boulders as large as automobiles.
01:11:13This lava is coming from about 30 miles below the earth's surface.
01:11:24This river is 100 feet wide and it is flowing through the west branch of the Great Rift
01:11:29Valley in the eastern part of the Congo in Kivu province.
01:11:34My natives were deathly afraid of this volcano, not only for obvious reasons but because they
01:11:39were so steeped in superstition, they thought this was their fire god and they thought that
01:11:43if they got too close, he would recognize their faces.
01:11:48So I had to pay them a bonus to get them up this close.
01:12:08In spite of the bonus, they moaned and groaned and groused like a bunch of G.I.s the whole
01:12:13trip.
01:12:14You never heard so many tales of woe from so few men before in your life.
01:12:20In spots, hydrogen gas seeped to the surface and burned and when hydrogen burns, it forms
01:12:25water vapor, and this is one of the rare examples of newborn water on the face of the earth.
01:13:12This volcano erupted continuously for five months and then, after causing destruction
01:13:39to thousands of acres of woodland, the eruption slackened.
01:13:48And then I could look right down into the throat and see the boiling, seething lake
01:13:52of molten lava at the very bottom.
01:13:55I came to Africa in a quest for high adventure and now I was leaving it with the feeling
01:14:00that I had found it indeed, and more than a fair share for one man.