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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...
00:01:18Africa is a land of vast plains like the Serengeti,
00:01:23and Africa is a land of delicate beauty
00:01:25with graceful creatures like the flamingos,
00:01:28and of magnificent mountains like Kirimanjaro in Tanzania,
00:01:33and colossal cataracts like Victoria Falls on the Zambezi.
00:01:38Victoria is twice as high as Niagara.
00:01:46Some of Africa's birds are so large you can feed a family of ten from a single ostrich egg.
00:01:59Africa has its share of weird and wonderful creatures like the chameleon,
00:02:03which has its eyes set in turrets.
00:02:05While one looks straight up, the other can look straight down, all at the same instant.
00:02:09That's what the boss should have in the office.
00:02:15One of the oddest creatures in Africa is the pangolin.
00:02:18Although it is a mammal, it has scales like a reptile.
00:02:22Termites are the wrecking crew of Africa.
00:02:25In one week, they can completely devour a thatched native hut,
00:02:29carrying the bits and pieces of grass into their underground fortress.
00:02:38Africa has its share of poisonous creatures like the boomslang, a deadly tree snake.
00:02:44And there is the puff adder, which literally walks on its ventral muscles.
00:02:50And there is the tsetse fly, which transmits the dreaded sleeping sickness.
00:02:55It feeds solely on blood, which it sucks from the skin of its victim,
00:02:59in this case, the arm of a Briton in Tanzania.
00:03:05In the wild, the tsetse fly is the most dangerous animal in the world.
00:03:09The arm of a Briton in Tanzania.
00:03:15After 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.
00:03:35A 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.
00:04:01They are frequently the victims of crocodiles.
00:04:22They are also often the victims of lions.
00:04:32In the wild, the tsetse fly is the most dangerous animal in the world.
00:04:36It feeds solely on blood, which it sucks from the skin of its victim,
00:04:40in this case, the arm of a Briton in Tanzania.
00:04:43It feeds solely on blood, which it sucks from the skin of its victim,
00:04:47in this case, the arm of a Briton in Tanzania.
00:04:50In the wild, the tsetse fly is the most dangerous animal in the world.
00:04:54It feeds solely on blood, which it sucks from the skin of its victim,
00:04:59in this case, the arm of a Briton in Tanzania.
00:05:02But large animals like the cape buffalo are sometimes,
00:05:06though not always, successful in beating off an attack by the king of beasts.
00:05:28THE END
00:05:58A lioness locked her jaws on the throat of this wildebeest
00:06:01A lioness locked her jaws on the throat of this wildebeest
00:06:04in a vice-like grip from which it could not escape.
00:06:07in a vice-like grip from which it could not escape.
00:06:15Newborn crocodiles rarely survive beyond the first week,
00:06:18falling easy victim to servals, civets, birds of prey,
00:06:22and even their own parents.
00:06:29Jackals 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,
00:06:47and he eats monkeys, snakes, lizards, rabbits, and rodents.
00:06:51He is a very powerful, very spirited bird.
00:06:58THE END
00:07:17Baby leopards have much to fear from other predators
00:07:20until they grow big and strong enough 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,
00:07:42which has the odd custom of chipping their teeth to points
00:07:45because, in their estimation, it enhances their 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,
00:07:59and with each strike they knock a chip off the tooth.
00:08:02It's a very painful process,
00:08:04and this man will have great difficulty eating or drinking for 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,
00:08:29or should I say the victim, is willing to pay five francs,
00:08:32but 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.
00:08:58You 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
00:09:11and sent him by air to my tax collector as a Christmas present.
00:09:15This python is larger than the first.
00:09:18The larger they are, the easier they are to catch because the slower they strike.
00:09:22But, of course, the longer their teeth, so you have to exercise a little more care.
00:09:34This snake weighed more than 100 pounds.
00:09:38I travel across the vast expanses of Africa in my pickup truck,
00:09:42and my objectives on this trip, in addition to capturing animals for zoos,
00:09:46are to bring back specimens of a new subspecies of Egyptian cobra
00:09:50for the American Museum of Natural History,
00:09:52and to assist Uganda government surveyors
00:09:55in mapping an unexplored section of the Mountains of the Moon,
00:09:58and to get a taste of Africa's wildlife.
00:10:02I often travel off the road,
00:10:04and sometimes my only means of navigation is a compass.
00:10:12If I head for the ridge in the center, I'll be right on course.
00:10:18I pitched my camp to a nearby river,
00:10:21where I'll meet a group of African snakes.
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,
00:10:33and one day, as I walked to my safari truck, I saw a startling sight.
00:10:38A full-grown cheetah.
00:10:40I ran for my rifle, because in this district, cheetah are classed as vermin,
00:10:44since they kill so many domestic animals,
00:10:46and the government encouraged me to collect any I found.
00:10:49But cheetah are the fastest four-legged animals in the world.
00:10:54Cheetah.
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.
00:11:15That is, you are not permitted to shoot them under any circumstances,
00:11:18but in this district, it's just the reverse.
00:11:21Oh, well, it's a nice sunny day, so I think I'll go for a walk to the felt
00:11:24and see what wildlife this district holds in store for me.
00:11:34This rhino is standing just about where I have to walk,
00:11:37because there is marshy ground to both left and right.
00:11:41I'm going to skirt as far to the left as I can,
00:11:44but I don't want to provoke him if I can help it,
00:11:46since I don't have a rhino on my game license.
00:11:51This rhino weighs about two tons, so game license or no game license,
00:11:55I'm going to slip a cartridge into the chamber just in case,
00:12:02but I'm not going to shoot if I can possibly help it.
00:12:12One step closer, and he would have gotten a bullet.
00:12:22Nope, you just can't go for a walk nowadays.
00:12:28Rubies. Tanzania 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,
00:12:49and I couldn't very well get them out with my fingernails or my teeth,
00:12:52so they're still there.
00:13:10I got out my pocket chart and made a notation of exactly where this place is
00:13:14in case I decide to come back someday and put a road through here.
00:13:21Here 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.
00:13:41I knew it, I knew it.
00:13:48I fought like that once, and just look what happened to me.
00:13:57By George, looks like a fight.
00:14:02Lions, a pride of six,
00:14:06one hiding up in some rocks and five out in the open.
00:14:10The best thing to do in a case like this is to walk right on past and show no sign of fear,
00:14:14because contrary to what most people think, lions do not normally eat people.
00:14:18If you run from a lion, he's bound to give chase.
00:14:22That is the worst possible thing you could do.
00:14:26But lions are like people, they all have different personalities.
00:14:30Where one will de-camp, another will stand his ground.
00:14:40This third fellow seemed even less inclined to move than the first two.
00:14:48The next two seemed even more inclined.
00:14:56This third fellow didn't even look friendly.
00:15:00Notice the hair on the back of his neck.
00:15:06Nope, they're just putting on a performance.
00:15:10This is simply a demonstration to try to frighten me off.
00:15:14They don't really mean it.
00:15:18This last fellow was a downright coward.
00:15:26Guinea fowl are common here on the plains of Central Africa,
00:15:30but they have many natural enemies,
00:15:34and they must be constantly on the alert,
00:15:38because sometimes death stalks just around the corner.
00:15:42In the uppermost branches of a tree,
00:15:46high overhead, sits an African hawk eagle,
00:15:50and he scans these guinea fowl very intently,
00:15:54because he is hungry.
00:16:06This is how he captures his prey.
00:16:14Like all birds of prey, he kills with his talons,
00:16:18not with his beak.
00:16:22Hawks do not eat bite-sized pieces,
00:16:26and do not attack or defend themselves with their beaks.
00:16:42Vultures. Hundreds 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.
00:16:58He's been feeding on it for so long, he just can't take another bite,
00:17:02but he'll be darned if he'll let anybody else have any.
00:17:06Vultures wait patiently.
00:17:10Others soar overhead.
00:17:20And the jackals wait patiently.
00:17:34Well, now it looks like he's had his fill
00:17:38and the vultures wade in.
00:17:50Vultures spend more time fighting with one another
00:17:54than they do in getting down to eating.
00:17:58They never do seem to get along with their own kind.
00:18:02I found a baby chimpanzee,
00:18:06and at first she was trembling with fear,
00:18:10but in a few minutes she grabbed my jacket with her little fists
00:18:14as if she was looking for protection from the big bad world around her.
00:18:18I 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
00:18:26and a face like a dried-up prune.
00:18:36She was a very clever little ape.
00:18:40Within three or four days I taught her to come to me when I called her by name,
00:18:44and she was pretty good going for a wild creature.
00:18:56Next day her relatives paid me a social call
00:19:00and stole some food from my truck.
00:19:14I loaded my truck with animals
00:19:18for the trip to the nearest airport.
00:19:22This is a cheetah cub.
00:19:32Next, a large crate of colorful East African lovebirds,
00:19:36also known as fisher's parakeets.
00:19:40And then we loaded boxes of poisonous snakes.
00:19:44I extended the range of my truck
00:19:48from the normal 300 miles to better than 1,000 miles
00:19:52by carrying these spare jerry cans.
00:19:56Now watch how Trudy grabs my bush jacket with her little fists.
00:20:00Once she gets hold of me like that, you just can't get her off.
00:20:04If you try to pull her off, you'll have to pull her off again.
00:20:08She's a tough one.
00:20:12She's a tough one.
00:20:16She's a tough one.
00:20:20She's a tough one.
00:20:24You just can't get her off.
00:20:28If you try, she will scream and cry like a little baby,
00:20:32and it's tough to drive with her between you and the wheel,
00:20:36but she's just got to sit right there.
00:20:40On the way, I saw some Thompson's gazelles,
00:20:44which are characterized by their windshield wipers in the rear.
00:20:48Their chief natural enemy is the wild dog,
00:20:52another one of their natural enemies is the lion.
00:20:56It's no secret this fellow just had a full meal.
00:21:00But their fleet-footedness is the thing that saves them
00:21:04because they can generally outrun their predators.
00:21:08I saw many wildebeest which were having their young
00:21:12about this time of year.
00:21:22The men of the village don't do this,
00:21:26and they think the women are absolutely mad.
00:21:30They paint their faces the same way,
00:21:34but this pigment lasts only about 3 or 4 days,
00:21:38so they have to go through this whole process at least twice a week.
00:21:42Little boys played strange games
00:21:46that I never could quite figure out.
00:21:50Most of the women have masculine faces.
00:22:02Then the chief showed me their favorite musical instrument,
00:22:06which they call a lukambi.
00:22:10It is a hollow wooden sounding board
00:22:14on which they have mounted flattened steel nails.
00:22:18I 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.
00:22:26The whole village turned out in single file.
00:22:4260 seconds after I drove up,
00:22:46I saw the pygmies on top of and inside of my truck.
00:22:50I bet the Ford Motor Company never knew they could carry this many people.
00:22:54This fellow said he had a spear he would like to trade with me.
00:23:06I just happened to have a piece of cloth
00:23:10I bought in Nairobi for this purpose.
00:23:14The spear is mine, the cloth is his.
00:23:18We each thought we got a bargain.
00:23:32This 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,
00:23:40but I couldn't reasonably climb aboard without first asking my permission.
00:23:44I never saw such a polite pygmy before.
00:23:48And now we're off for an exciting ride at all of two miles per hour.
00:23:52I was afraid that if I went any faster, I'd lose those fellows on top.
00:23:56After living with these tiny people for a few weeks,
00:24:00I visited a Bantu village at the edge of the forest.
00:24:10It was here that I saw how they operate their old-fashioned muzzle loaders.
00:24:14They pour some black powder down the barrel,
00:24:26slide in a paper seal,
00:24:30then drop in a piece of lead fashioned to the shape of a bullet.
00:24:34Whoops, time out for snuff.
00:24:38He can't do his work properly without snuff.
00:24:42He puts as much powder up his nose as he puts down the barrel.
00:24:50Now he cocks the hammer and puts a percussion cap on the striker base.
00:24:54Then he slowly closes the hammer down on it.
00:24:58Now all he has to do in order to fire is simply cock the hammer.
00:25:02Now he's going to demonstrate his prowess with this noisy weapon.
00:25:06Missed by 15 feet.
00:25:14Now he's going to demonstrate his prowess with this noisy weapon.
00:25:18Missed by 15 feet.
00:25:22Missed by 15 feet.
00:25:26When I arrived in Uganda, I made arrangements with a game ranger to use the launch
00:25:30which the government put at his disposal because I'm searching for monitor lizards
00:25:34and these four-foot lizards frequent the banks of rivers in Central Africa.
00:25:38I'm now on the Victoria Nile between Lake Victoria and Lake Albert
00:25:42and I'm going to scan both banks carefully for these giant monitors.
00:25:52On the way, I saw many of the colorful birds
00:25:56which are so characteristic of this part of Africa.
00:26:00Marabou storks, pelicans, Egyptian geese, darters and cormorants.
00:26:08This hippo ran along an underwater plateau
00:26:12and then suddenly he stepped off the edge.
00:26:16A yellow-billed kite spotted a dead fish floating on the surface
00:26:20and he swooped down and snatched it up in his talons.
00:26:26I saw many crocodiles along the banks of this river.
00:26:36I saw many crocodiles along the banks of this river.
00:26:46Then I saw some cattle egrets landing on a mud bank.
00:26:54Aha! It wasn't a mud bank at all.
00:26:58It was a herd of sleeping hippos.
00:27:02You get lots of surprises out here.
00:27:10Crocodiles often wander far from water at night
00:27:14but seldom more than 8 or 10 feet from it during daylight hours.
00:27:22They have the odd custom of sleeping with their mouths wide open.
00:27:26Notice all the flies in this fellow's mouth.
00:27:30Boy, I hope those flies don't drown.
00:27:38Then I saw some hippos kissing.
00:27:42And a couple play fighting.
00:27:54Monitor lizards, just what I was looking for.
00:27:58They're digging in a hole in the sand bank for turtle eggs.
00:28:02Monitors like eggs of all kinds, bird's eggs, crocodile eggs and turtle eggs.
00:28:06And when they find one, they gulp it down voraciously.
00:28:12I disembarked at a landing
00:28:16that the game ranger had erected nearby
00:28:20and I instructed the crew to return before nightfall
00:28:24with my natives and my camping gear.
00:28:28Meanwhile, I'm going to survey this area for a campsite
00:28:32which will serve as a base for capturing these giant lizards.
00:28:36The next morning while my camp was under construction,
00:28:40I went out for a walk
00:28:44and on what was practically my front lawn,
00:28:48there was a monitor.
00:29:06I made a rush for him,
00:29:10but he turned the tables on me
00:29:14and for a minute I was wondering who was trying to capture whom.
00:29:18He has very powerful jaws and sharp teeth
00:29:22and you must be very careful how you grab him not to lose a finger.
00:29:36Well, now it's all over but to grab him by the head,
00:29:40but this is easier said than done
00:29:44because he's not going to cooperate one bit.
00:29:48This is what is known as having a lizard by the tail.
00:30:06I packed him in a comfortable wooden crate
00:30:10and sent him off by air express to my animal agent in America.
00:30:18I packed my animals and my gear in my truck
00:30:22and I headed for the Serengeti Plains of Tanzania.
00:30:36Serengeti Plains of Tanzania
00:31:06At about this time of the year,
00:31:10lionesses are having their young on the Serengeti Plains.
00:31:14They usually have three or four cubs to a litter
00:31:18and stay with them for about two years
00:31:22to protect them from danger when they're tiny
00:31:26and to teach them the fine art of hunting.
00:31:30Lion cubs don't know all the fine points of stalking their prey by hand
00:31:34or all the fine points of stalking their prey by instinct.
00:31:38They have to learn these through long, hard hours of instruction from their mother.
00:31:42If they make a mistake, they get cuffed good and hard
00:31:46and they learn mighty fast.
00:31:50Lions show real affection for one another
00:31:54pretty much as in the case of human beings.
00:31:58They have a very closely knit family life.
00:32:02But when a lioness has her young,
00:32:06she is usually in a very nasty protective disposition
00:32:10and this is no time to disturb her or to get too close.
00:32:14But she is very patient and accommodating toward her cubs.
00:32:18She is literally a mobile milk bar
00:32:22out here in the hot, dusty plains of Tanzania.
00:32:26A unique thing about lionesses is that they will nurse cubs
00:32:30of their own.
00:32:34They never cared less whose cubs they are.
00:32:38For example, here you'll see that one cub is much larger than the others
00:32:42which shows that this lioness is babysitting for another lioness
00:32:46who's gone off hunting. Sort of a cooperative society.
00:32:50Yep, life is one big bowl of cherries when you're a lion cub.
00:32:54Ma and Pa do all the work and you have all the fun.
00:32:58Males weigh about 450 pounds, adult females about 350 pounds.
00:33:28Animals can tell when lions are out to make a kill
00:33:32and 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.
00:33:44But these wildebeest and zebra know that this old boy is up to no good
00:33:48so they give him a wide berth.
00:33:52Actually, he is frightening them to a point downwind
00:33:56that usually do the killing for a pride, not the males.
00:34:00Males will condescend to help but they leave the dirty work up to the ladies
00:34:04pretty much as in the case of human beings.
00:34:08There is not a tree for miles around and it's 110 degrees in the shade.
00:34:26Boy, I wish that old man would hurry up and bring home the bacon.
00:34:30So he accommodates and shifts into second.
00:34:38Now he shifts into high
00:34:42and this ostrich decides this is no place for him.
00:34:46And these two hardebeest say, boy, let's get out of here.
00:34:50This is no place for us.
00:34:56In less than an hour,
00:35:00there is nothing left but skin and bones.
00:35:04Lions know what it is to go hungry.
00:35:08Sometimes they do without meat for four or five days.
00:35:12So when they have a kill,
00:35:16they make the most of it while it's available.
00:35:20They literally gorge themselves,
00:35:24leaving nothing behind if they can possibly help it.
00:35:28Now I headed north
00:35:32and on the way I crossed an improvised log bridge.
00:35:36The unsettling thing about these bridges
00:35:40is that you never know what load they're built to withstand
00:35:44until you get to the other side.
00:35:48Then it might be too late.
00:35:52Now I'm in South Africa.
00:35:56Kalambo Falls, the highest waterfall on the continent,
00:36:00twice as high as Victoria, a 720-foot drop.
00:36:04It's situated way down at the southern tip of Lake Tanzania
00:36:08on the Tanzania-Zambia border.
00:36:12This waterfall is so high
00:36:16the entire river atomizes before it strikes bottom.
00:36:20So it's a perfectly silent waterfall.
00:36:24There's no thunder here whatsoever.
00:36:28Its name Kalambo means greatest of the great
00:36:32in the local vernacular.
00:36:42Zebras have few pleasures in life,
00:36:46but this is one of them.
00:36:54On the way I discovered
00:36:58that I had several broken spring blades
00:37:02and I took time out to apply homemade steel clamps.
00:37:06During the years that this safari lasted,
00:37:10I brought this truck to Africa on a freighter
00:37:14and sold it in Cape Town a few years later.
00:37:18It is now owned by a man in the suburbs
00:37:22who uses it for selling vegetables.
00:37:26These natives really were a great help.
00:37:30I don't know what I would have done without them.
00:37:40I made a base camp here
00:37:44and one day as I returned from a hunt
00:37:48I heard a very strange sound.
00:37:52Two young leopards.
00:37:56I took a quick look around for mother leopard
00:38:00because she would be very displeased
00:38:04if she knew I was going to adopt her cubs.
00:38:08They were about three weeks old
00:38:12and weighed two pounds apiece.
00:38:16I called them Sputnik and Mutnik.
00:38:20As far as I know,
00:38:24mother leopard never did follow me back to camp.
00:38:28At least I never saw her.
00:38:32They were so tiny,
00:38:36they just didn't know what fear was.
00:38:40They are now full grown
00:38:44and they live in the zoo in Rochester, New York.
00:38:48I had some dehydrated milk
00:38:52already prepared for my baby antelope
00:38:56and of course I always carry baby bottles with me
00:39:00when I'm on safari.
00:39:04Oh, mother leopard must have been away a long, long time.
00:39:08I fed them up on calcium gluconate,
00:39:12cod liver oil, vitamins, milk and meat
00:39:16and they doubled their weight in a month.
00:39:20Leopards are easy to raise
00:39:24and they make wonderful pets.
00:39:34One day as they were playing at my feet,
00:39:38one of my natives shouted.
00:39:42Buena, buena, mamba!
00:39:46And there he was, a black mamba,
00:39:50the fastest and deadliest snake in Africa.
00:39:54I ran for my snake stick because these snakes
00:39:58are highly sought after by zoos in America
00:40:02and they are called cobra, paralyzing the nerve centers of the body
00:40:06but it acts much more quickly than cobra venom.
00:40:10I had no serum for the bite of a mamba
00:40:14so I had to be very careful how I handled it.
00:40:18Mambas have the characteristic
00:40:22of traveling with their heads held high above the ground
00:40:26which makes it very difficult to pin them down.
00:40:30When a mamba is angry,
00:40:34he flattens his neck.
00:40:46There, now I have his head pinned down.
00:40:50And now it's all over but to pick him up
00:40:54and pop him into a sack and send him by air to America.
00:40:58He is perfectly uninjured and in excellent condition
00:41:02and he measured exactly eight feet long.
00:41:06Mambas are long, thin, graceful snakes
00:41:10and they have real poise.
00:41:18But life on safari has its more prosaic moments.
00:41:22For example, sometimes you have to hang up your pajamas.
00:41:26And there are camp pets that require attention from time to time.
00:41:30Natives come to me constantly looking for medical care
00:41:34like this Maasai tribesman who has a bad eye infection.
00:41:38These tribal natives look upon all Europeans
00:41:42camped in remote bush country as doctors.
00:41:46They believe we all have magical powers
00:41:50and every day I have at least three or four natives
00:41:54I 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
00:42:02so I had a devil of a time getting him to swallow these capsules.
00:42:16Notice how reluctant he is about the whole thing.
00:42:20Nope, he doesn't think much of that drink.
00:42:30I asked this fine looking tribesman to come back the next morning
00:42:34for some more penicillin. His trouble was cleared up in one week.
00:42:42There are lots of chores to take care of around camp.
00:42:46My baby Reedbuck needed her bottle every four or five hours.
00:42:58And Trudy whooped and hollered like a little girl looking for attention.
00:43:02And I had to take time out occasionally
00:43:06for a bath for myself and out here there was such a water shortage
00:43:10that I had to bathe in dishwater and save the water after the bath.
00:43:16Meanwhile, Sputnik and Mutnik fought over last night's kudu bone.
00:43:24Leopards grow very fast and in just seven months
00:43:28these leopards grew to be a real armful.
00:43:32But chimps don't grow nearly as fast as leopards
00:43:36and every time I took these beasts out of the compound, Trudy ran for the truck.
00:43:40She wanted no part of these animals anymore.
00:43:46Old Sputnik loved to play rough house
00:43:50and you just couldn't be too rough with him.
00:43:54You could drop him and kick him and step on him right up to the point of breaking his ribs
00:43:58and he'd come back for more. He loved it.
00:44:02But the thing he loved the best was to be laid on his back and tickled.
00:44:10Sputnik had a passion for going to the back of my neck.
00:44:14After I'd played rough house with him, the back of my neck was scratched and bleeding
00:44:18but of course it was all in fun.
00:44:34Sputnik weighed about 75 pounds
00:44:38at this point.
00:44:46Boy, I wish he'd leave the back of my neck alone.
00:45:02Sputnik's favorite playmate was Jackie,
00:45:06a dog that belonged to a professional hunter in Livingston.
00:45:10And although they were about the same size and weight,
00:45:14you can see that nature intended them for entirely different functions
00:45:18by the difference in the size of their paws.
00:45:22These two fellas were fast friends. They really loved each other.
00:45:26These are two lions in the Springs Game Reserve
00:45:30in the Transvaal.
00:45:34Outside of Sputnik and Mutnik, these two fellas had absolutely no manners whatsoever.
00:45:38They are not my lions. I'm just visiting them.
00:45:48Each time I played with these beasts,
00:45:52it cost me a shirt, a pair of pants, and a bit of hide.
00:46:04There's the beginning of the end of my shirt.
00:46:20One day, a little boy came running to my camp
00:46:24and told me that a native in the nearby village
00:46:28had been bitten by a cobra a few hours before.
00:46:32I grabbed my hypodermic syringe and serum,
00:46:36and I followed him.
00:46:54But I was too late.
00:47:02I heard a native woman shout,
00:47:06which in the Selozi language means snake.
00:47:14It was an Egyptian cobra.
00:47:18I couldn't find a stick long enough to pin him down with,
00:47:22so I'll use a twig and capture him by distracting his attention with the kerchief
00:47:26while I grab his jaws from behind with the other hand.
00:47:30He is a very deadly snake, and I've got to be certain of my aim.
00:47:34This is my helper.
00:48:00This is the snake
00:48:04the American Museum of Natural History
00:48:08was looking for.
00:48:12They believe that Egyptian cobras from this district
00:48:16are a new subspecies,
00:48:20so I sent him off to the museum by air express.
00:48:24A couple of months later,
00:48:28I pitched my camp in a village of bushmen
00:48:32and recorded their strange language
00:48:36for a professor of anthropology in America.
00:48:40I asked this bushman to tell me
00:48:44how he collected honey in the forest,
00:48:48and I took it down on my tape recorder.
00:48:52And then I played it back to him.
00:49:06He refused to believe that that was his own voice.
00:49:10When it was all over, he told me that the little man in the black box
00:49:14said exactly the same thing the same way he did.
00:49:22After recording his voice for posterity,
00:49:26I gave him some stainless steel mirrors and inexpensive knives.
00:49:30Then I had a chat with the induna, or local chief.
00:49:34He had a sad story to tell me.
00:49:38He said that a lion had killed their hunting dogs.
00:49:42This was a real catastrophe for them
00:49:46because they depended upon their dogs to help them get fresh meat.
00:49:50I started out the next morning
00:49:54with my two best Bantu trackers
00:49:58from the carcass of one of the dogs
00:50:02which showed lots of fresh lion tracks.
00:50:06Judging by the size of the tracks, he was a very large lion indeed,
00:50:10and judging by the freshness, he was very close.
00:50:14We knew we would come upon him in a matter of minutes.
00:50:20gunshot
00:50:38Must have wounded him badly.
00:50:42In Diyobwana, Banduki Piga Simba,
00:50:46the gun did strike the lion.
00:51:16music
00:51:20music
00:51:24music
00:51:28music
00:51:32music
00:51:36music
00:51:40music
00:51:44music
00:51:48music
00:51:52music
00:51:56music
00:52:00music
00:52:04After me, George.
00:52:08gunshot
00:52:12music
00:52:16The third shot went through his spine
00:52:20and he died just as he struck me.
00:52:24He was a full-grown male that weighed about 450 pounds.
00:52:28I asked my native to go to the nearest village
00:52:32and bring back a lot of others to help carry this beast
00:52:36back to the camp for skinning.
00:52:40Simba was accidentally shot and killed the next day
00:52:44by another native with the same rifle that shot that lion.
00:52:48It is a good object lesson in the fact that you can never be too careful
00:52:52in the handling of firearms.
00:53:00singing
00:53:04singing
00:53:08singing
00:53:12singing
00:53:16singing
00:53:20Then I headed for Fort Portal, Uganda,
00:53:24where I had been invited by the government
00:53:28to witness the rare event of exploration in modern times.
00:53:32There is a huge marketplace here for natives.
00:53:36It was here that I met with the chief mapper for Uganda.
00:53:40He explained that the government is sending an expedition
00:53:44to the top of the Mountains of the Moon
00:53:48to map the upper reaches of the Nyamagosani River,
00:53:52which has never been seen or mapped above the 7,000-foot level before.
00:53:56He explained that the river valley is constantly shrouded in clouds
00:54:00and aerial photos have shown nothing of it because of the solid cloud coverage.
00:54:04According to the government, no one to their knowledge
00:54:08has ever set foot in that river valley above the 7,000-foot level before.
00:54:12Three weeks later, we started out at the north end of Lake Edward
00:54:16with 50 African porters.
00:54:20The first order of business was a negotiation over wages,
00:54:24and this consumed exactly two hours.
00:54:28After compromising on a wage,
00:54:32we got together the food for the porters.
00:54:36We had 150 pounds of dried hippo meat,
00:54:40600 pounds of peanuts,
00:54:441,200 pounds of cassava flour,
00:54:48and a live goat and sheep to provide fresh meat.
00:54:52We doled out blankets because where we're going,
00:54:56we're going to the Alps in Europe.
00:55:00The summit is at 16,800 feet above sea level,
00:55:04and there's ice at the top year-round.
00:55:08Headloads were weighed out at 50 pounds apiece.
00:55:12We have a 50-mile walk ahead of us because we're crossing the range
00:55:16in the long direction from south to north.
00:55:20Now starts a long, hard three-week climb
00:55:24which cost us the life of one man before it was finished.
00:55:28Cheetah wandered in off the plains
00:55:32to the foothills of Ruin Zori.
00:55:36And it was here that we saw more than a dozen different kinds of lizards.
00:55:40The streams were numbingly cold
00:55:44because they were the runoff from glaciers.
00:55:48We saw lots of game
00:55:52in the rainforest on the approach,
00:55:56even a few pythons.
00:56:00Soon we left far below us
00:56:04the villages from which our Baconjo tribesmen came.
00:56:08We followed them,
00:56:12but we didn't see them.
00:56:16We picked these Baconjo
00:56:20because they live in the foothills
00:56:24and are accustomed to carrying heavy loads up steep slopes.
00:56:28They are tough, wiry Africans.
00:56:32The chimps that we saw along the way
00:56:36were talking to each other in Chimpanese.
00:56:40We chopped firewood at the end of the seventh day
00:56:44and the chimps 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
00:57:02and they carved it up for supper that night.
00:57:14It was here that we saw
00:57:18the typical creeping, crawling creatures
00:57:22so characteristic of this part of Africa,
00:57:26including the safari ant, the most insidious insect
00:57:30in all of Africa, bar none.
00:57:34At the end of the eighth day,
00:57:38our natives collected moss for mattresses.
00:57:42Moss is a staple diet.
00:57:46They mix it with water, stir it over a fire
00:57:50and roll it into little balls and pop it into their mouths.
00:57:54And it tastes terrible.
00:58:02But they love it.
00:58:06They also had mutton for the evening meal.
00:58:12We didn't go much for the cassava flowers
00:58:16so we broke out some tin goods.
00:58:20The man on the left is the head
00:58:24of the Department of Lands and Surveys
00:58:28for the Uganda government.
00:58:36And this is a British mountain climber
00:58:40who was invited to guide us across the ice fields.
00:58:44He's had considerable experience climbing the Himalayas of Tibet.
00:58:48And this seedy-looking character is yours truly.
00:58:54After a satisfying meal,
00:58:58the boys fashion pipes from long-stemmed jungle plants.
00:59:10And then the clouds rolled in.
00:59:14Rwenzori is almost constantly shrouded in clouds.
00:59:20In a few minutes, the visibility dropped to a few yards
00:59:24and it was cold and clammy.
00:59:28This is typical Rwenzori weather.
00:59:40Next morning, we got up early.
00:59:44We took sightings on the elevations of nearby peaks
00:59:48and found, in many instances,
00:59:52the latest government charts were in error.
00:59:56And now the temperature dropped close to the freezing point.
01:00:00There is the valley through which the government
01:00:04suspects the Nyamagosani River flows.
01:00:08This is because it has never been seen above the 7,000-foot level before
01:00:12and we are much higher than that now.
01:00:16As usual, it is shrouded in heavy mist.
01:00:20And there is the source of that river at 13,500 feet above sea level.
01:00:24This is the first time it has ever been seen or filmed.
01:00:28The river had an eerie appearance because it was so heavily shrouded in mist.
01:00:32We wanted to map the upper reaches of this river,
01:00:36to the point where an advanced party had cashed away food for the porters at a forward base
01:00:40and had only a seven-day supply of porter food remaining,
01:00:44which meant that we had to start out the very next day
01:00:48if we were to keep from running out of food.
01:00:52This happened because our porters were eating at a higher rate than we had calculated on.
01:01:00The river flowed through a forest which was festooned with hanging moss.
01:01:06We saw a placid pool at the 12,000-foot level.
01:01:10We checked our charts for the best approach to the rock divide
01:01:14which separates us from the snow peaks,
01:01:18which is where the advanced party had cashed away the food.
01:01:22And now starts the hardest, coldest part of the climb.
01:01:26It rained for 17 days out of the three weeks,
01:01:30which made the rocks doubly slippery and treacherous.
01:01:38All of our gear was constantly soaking because of the incessant rain
01:01:42and because the sun never shone long enough for us to dry it out.
01:01:46When the temperature dropped below zero,
01:01:50we had to go back to work.
01:01:54When the temperature dropped below freezing,
01:01:58we found we often had ice in the tent in the mornings.
01:02:02One of the men in the advanced party died of pneumonia
01:02:06four days after they crossed the tree line.
01:02:10He was a 31-year-old Briton.
01:02:18This is the first time in my life
01:02:22that I have ever seen snow on a mountain.
01:02:26It will probably be the last.
01:02:30We saw a lake which was discovered two years previously
01:02:34but which remained unnamed.
01:02:38It is the policy of the Uganda government
01:02:42to name new geographical features after local names.
01:02:46Our guide said he calls it Kachopi.
01:02:50It protects us from the snow peaks.
01:03:10And there at the foot of this glacier are two tiny huts.
01:03:14In one of these, the advanced party cashed away food
01:03:18and left behind one of their men
01:03:22who has been awaiting our arrival for one week.
01:03:30Needless to say, he was very pleased to see us.
01:03:34He is a young Oxford graduate
01:03:38who is now in the government service in Tanzania.
01:03:42He said that he had taken sightings on the elevation
01:03:46peaks and found many errors in the latest government charts
01:03:50just as we have.
01:03:52It's not hard to realize when you consider that Ruanzori
01:03:56was discovered less than 100 years ago
01:04:00and a good deal of the upper reaches
01:04:02still remain incompletely mapped.
01:04:04After a warm meal in his hut,
01:04:06we started out across the ice fields
01:04:08which, believe it or not, are right on the equator.
01:04:12There is ice up here all year round.
01:04:14We are at the top of Stanley Mountain
01:04:16at the very summit of the Mountains of the Moon
01:04:18with Uganda on our left and the Congo on our right.
01:04:26These glaciers are actually rivers of ice.
01:04:30Our progress here dropped to less than one half mile per day
01:04:34not only because of the rarefied air
01:04:36but because of the steepness of some of the glaciers
01:04:40that we had to cross.
01:04:42There were huge crevasses which were about 200 feet deep
01:04:46covered by a thin crust of ice
01:04:48and we had to be very careful
01:04:50how we walked across these areas
01:04:52not to fall into the ice.
01:04:54We had to be very careful
01:04:57and we had to be very careful
01:04:59how we walked across these areas
01:05:01not to fall through.
01:05:03These are the very first drops
01:05:05of the White Nile from a glacier melting
01:05:07at the top of Rwenzori.
01:05:09These drops joined together
01:05:11with the drops from other glaciers
01:05:13to form tiny rivulets
01:05:15which race down the rocky faces.
01:05:17These rivulets joined together
01:05:19to form little streams
01:05:21that run through the vegetation
01:05:23a few thousand feet below
01:05:26the surface.
01:05:30At this point the entire volume of the Nile
01:05:32surges through a narrow cleft of rock
01:05:34only 19 feet wide
01:05:36as it races toward Lake Albert.
01:05:39There is tremendous thunder and power
01:05:41in this tiny little chasm.
01:05:47So it is here on the roof of Africa
01:05:50that the Nile is born
01:05:524,000 miles from its mouth
01:05:54in the Mediterranean.
01:05:56From rivers of ice
01:05:58to mountains of fire.
01:06:00Less than 100 miles from Rwenzori
01:06:02a volcano was in full eruption.
01:06:04I asked the owner of a light plane
01:06:06if he would fly me over it.
01:06:08He said he would be pleased to
01:06:10as he'd seen the smoke from the eruption
01:06:12a few days before and was just as curious
01:06:14to see it at close range as I was.
01:06:16This volcano was born
01:06:18from a perfectly flat forest
01:06:20where fire suddenly opened up in the ground
01:06:22and molten lava flew skyward.
01:06:24It was one of the rare instances
01:06:26in recorded times that a volcano
01:06:28was born from a perfectly flat surface.
01:06:44We saw great destruction
01:06:46to the forest below us
01:06:48as molten lava flows.
01:06:50A river of molten lava
01:06:52flowed for 16 miles through the forest
01:06:54causing the destruction
01:06:56of thousands of acres of woodland.
01:06:58Those patches of white are steam
01:07:00resulting from the rain that's falling now
01:07:02vaporizing when it strikes the hot lava.
01:07:18We felt intense heat inside the cockpit
01:07:20on the side facing the eruption.
01:07:48This is how the sun looked
01:08:02through the column of steam
01:08:04coming out of the crater.
01:08:06Back down on the ground
01:08:08I hired four Congolese
01:08:10to carry my photo and camping gear
01:08:12and we went on a foot safari
01:08:14to get a closer look.
01:08:16We saw the vegetation
01:08:18for a radius of 20 miles.
01:08:20The trees are completely denuded
01:08:22of their leaves from the acid fallout.
01:08:26The lava fields were very, very hot
01:08:28and we had to step lively.
01:08:42It was raining
01:08:44and when it struck the hot lava
01:08:46it vaporized instantly
01:08:48cutting our visibility down to a few yards.
01:08:50At times we didn't know
01:08:52whether we were walking
01:08:54toward the volcano or away from it.
01:08:56The only way we could tell
01:08:58was by homing in on the tremendous roar
01:09:00and sometimes this was very deceptive.
01:09:02We had to call to each other
01:09:04constantly to keep from being separated
01:09:06and in spite of that
01:09:08one of my natives was lost
01:09:10for more than an hour.
01:09:14When the rain stopped
01:09:16the visibility cleared
01:09:18and we found this kingfisher
01:09:20which apparently died from the intense
01:09:22gases coming out of the crater.
01:09:24Now we were walking across
01:09:26scoriaceous lava, that is
01:09:28huge blocks of very jagged lava
01:09:30which is sharp as glass
01:09:32and you must be very careful
01:09:34how you walk across it
01:09:36not to let the calves of your legs
01:09:38rub against it or it would
01:09:40cut them to ribbons.
01:09:45When we were within
01:09:47half a mile of the eruption
01:09:49we were walking on about 14 inches
01:09:51of porous black ash which crunched
01:09:53audibly as we stepped across it.
01:09:55Some of this light black ash was being
01:09:57carried more than 20 miles away
01:09:59by the winds aloft.
01:10:01Molten lava
01:10:03flowed around tree trunks
01:10:05and the intense heat consumed the lower
01:10:07part of the trunk leaving gaping holes
01:10:09and you had to be very careful
01:10:11not to step in one of these.
01:10:15The temperature of molten lava
01:10:17is about 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit
01:10:19or about the same as molten steel.
01:10:28I threw a rock in this river of molten lava
01:10:30and it bounced and floated
01:10:32because it was the same density
01:10:34as the river itself.
01:10:45There were huge boulders floating
01:10:47in the river, boulders as large
01:10:49as automobiles.
01:10:51This lava is coming from about 30 miles
01:10:53below the earth's surface.
01:11:22This river is 100 feet wide
01:11:24and it is flowing through the west
01:11:26branch of the Great Rift Valley
01:11:28in the eastern part of the Congo
01:11:30in Kivu province.
01:11:32My natives were deathly afraid
01:11:34of this volcano not only for obvious
01:11:36reasons but because they were so steeped
01:11:38in superstition they thought this was
01:11:40their fire god and they thought
01:11:42that if they got too close
01:11:44he would recognize their faces.
01:11:46So I had to pay them a bonus
01:11:48to get them up this close.
01:11:52Sound of wind.
01:12:08In spite of the bonus,
01:12:10they moaned and groaned and groused
01:12:12like a bunch of G.I.s the whole trip.
01:12:14You never heard so many tales of woe
01:12:16from so few men before in your life.
01:12:19In spots, hydrogen gas seeped
01:12:21to the surface and burned
01:12:23and when hydrogen burns it forms
01:12:25water vapor and this is one of the rare
01:12:27examples of newborn water on the face
01:12:29of the earth.
01:12:48Sound of wind.
01:13:18Sound of volcano erupting.
01:13:34This volcano erupted
01:13:36continuously for five months
01:13:38and then after causing destruction
01:13:40to thousands of acres of woodland
01:13:42the eruption slackened.
01:13:48And then I could look right down
01:13:50into the throat and see the boiling,
01:13:52seething lake of molten lava
01:13:54at the very bottom.
01:13:56I came to Africa in a quest
01:13:58for high adventure and now I was
01:14:00leaving it with the feeling that
01:14:02I had found it indeed
01:14:04and more than a fair share
01:14:06for one man.