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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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[insects chirping]

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[jackal howling]

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[thunder rumbling]

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[mystical music playing]

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[man] You can never underestimate
the power of beliefs.

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I come from Venda…

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where societies are mythical.

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[thunder rumbling]

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In Tshivenda, we call pangolin "khwara."

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[in Venda] Our elders believe that

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a pangolin comes down from the sky

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and vibrates its scales
to trigger the thunder.

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-[music intensifies]
-[thunder crashing]

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[rain pattering]

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[frog croaking]

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The pangolin brings us the rain.

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[thunder rumbling]

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[pangolin sniffing]

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When you see the pangolin,

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it means you will be blessed…

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[thunder rumbling]

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…because a pangolin is a gift from God.

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[epic music playing]

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[soulful vocalization]

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-[music fades]
-[thunder rumbling]

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[jackal howling]

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[dramatic sting]

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[siren wailing in distance]

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[gentle music playing]

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[man 1] Before Pangolin,

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I was sort of in that…
that stage of my life

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where I wanted something

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a little bit more long-term, meaningful.

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[gentle music continues]

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[Gareth] There's just something
about pangolins.

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They changed the way I saw the world.

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[music intensifies]

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But I've still never seen
a pangolin in the wild.

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[horn honking]

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Only ones that we've rescued
from the illegal wildlife trade.

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And that was how I met Gijima.

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[dramatic music building]

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[lively music playing]

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[man] All eight species
of these unique mammals

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have been harvested relentlessly
for traditional Chinese medicine.

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[music continues]

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The scales are used as an ingredient
in up to 60 commercial remedies.

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If the levels of illegal trade
remain as they are now,

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they'll be gone in two to three decades.

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[music fades]

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[tense music playing]

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[indistinct chatter on radio]

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[Gareth] A sting operation
is when we'll get intel

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that there's a pangolin
that the traffickers want to sell.

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-[radio crackles]
-[indistinct chatter]

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[rustling]

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Ray lures them in, acting as a buyer.

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[tense music continues]

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[soft thudding]

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[man] All right, stand by.

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Go, go, go, go!

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[frenetic music plays]

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-Now!
-[men clamoring]

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Get up! Get up!

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[man yelling]

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[music fades]

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[indistinct chatter]

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[pensive music playing]

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[Ray] He said he's had it for a week.

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-It's very light.
-[man] It's tiny.

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[pangolin sniffing]

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[Gareth] Gijima was only a baby,
so he was tiny.

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[sniffing]

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It's an incredible thing

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to see and experience
just how innocent they are.

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Their only defense
is to roll up in a ball.

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They can't run.

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Okay. Okay.

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They can't bite you.

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Hey, buddy. You're good. You're good.

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They are just so harmless.

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[tender music playing]

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[speaking indistinctly]

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We've made a contribution
to assist an animal

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that perhaps would've been killed.

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So it's… it's actually a good…
it's a good thing that we did. Ja.

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[indistinct chatter]

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[Gareth] I used to,
after a sting operation,

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be, like, super pumped up.

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Man stuff.

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Um, now I just feel traumatized.

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I mean, I know the suffering
that this animal is going through.

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Some of them just never
fully leave that darkness, and they die.

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[birds chirping]

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[woman] You never know what state

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the pangolin's going to be in
when it comes in.

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[sniffing]

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Poaching is very traumatic

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'cause they're plucked out
of their little paradise…

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-Not… Date, ja.
-Date. Yeah.

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…and then been through
a very, very rough period

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of bad handling
and shouting and music and noise.

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-[doctor speaking indistinctly]
-[monitor beeping]

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[Nicci] Gijima was very little.

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It was pitiful

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because he would've probably
still been with his mother.

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[somber music playing]

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You have a volunteer
assigned to each pangolin.

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[switch clicks]

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They're very sensitive animals
because they're loners.

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[Gareth speaking softly]

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[Nicci] I remember what struck me
was how terrified he was.

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You are gonna be a handful, aren't you?

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Come on.

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You are gonna be a real handful.

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Hmm?

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[Nicci] Maybe he had been through
particularly traumatic events.

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This poor little animal
is just in this absolute blind panic.

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[Gareth whispering] Come on.

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-[sniffing]
-It's okay.

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It's okay, my buddy. It's okay.

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[Nicci] Since 2007,

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I think we've probably released
close to 100 pangolins in all.

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[gentle music playing]

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We used to keep them for a couple of days,

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give them fluids, and then just try
and get them out as quickly as possible.

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No release process.

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Which is so, so different
to how we're doing it now

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because we've learned such hard lessons.

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[music continues]

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[sniffing]

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[music fades]

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[Ray] Between the hospital
and the release process,

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we were losing pangolins.

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The jump was too big.

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[pensive music playing]

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There needs to be a place
where you can become a pangolin again

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and become a wild pangolin again.

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[elephant huffs, rumbles]

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And that was the dream of a pangolarium,

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and we've been looking for
the right place.

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[music continues]

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[soulful vocalization]

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[Nicci] Lapalala is an exquisite reserve.

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[elephant rumbles]

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It's got mountains.
It's got wetlands. It's got grassland.

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[bellowing gently]

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[blissful music playing]

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It's got so many different types of ants.

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It could be the perfect place
for young pangolins to go.

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[insects chirping]

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We decided to take Gijima up…

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and for Gareth to go up with him.

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[music continues]

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[Gareth] For me, there's definitely
a fear of failure.

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I'd never had to nurture something
so vulnerable in my life before.

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All right, hang on. The last bit.

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I really just wanted to do
the best job possible.

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[scratching]

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But with Gijima,
that was never going to be easy.

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[music continues]

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[music fades]

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[birds chirping]

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[Gareth] Hey.

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[soft thudding]

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Okay. Okay.

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Hmm?

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Welcome to your new home. Hey?

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[sniffing]

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Welcome to your new home.

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Hey? Hey, my little man.

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Hey? You ready to go for a walk? Hey?

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Ready to go for a walk?

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They've been through all this trauma,

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so a lot of what we're doing

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is the psychological rehabilitation.

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Okay.

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Gijima, he was around 3 kg.

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He needs to be 6.5 kg
before we let him go.

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Are you ready to go?

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That's a weight that has been determined

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over years and years of trial and error

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and learning the hard way
that if a pangolin's too small,

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it won't survive.

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[low rumbling]

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So the first time I took him out here
at Lapalala, he just ran.

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[lively music playing]

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Where are you going?

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And he's fast.

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There's a fence there.

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Careful, you're gonna walk
into the fence. Oop.

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I was full helicopter parent. [laughs]

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I wasn't letting him out of my sight.

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Here's Gijima!

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There goes Gijima. [laughing]

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[music continues]

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Are you going for a swim? Yeah?

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[sniffing]

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Careful.

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Hey? Careful there.

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[endearing music building]

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His dominant instinct
wasn't to settle, to forage.

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I think that instinct
to just get away kicked in.

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[endearing music continues]

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He didn't interpret my presence
as a very safe space.

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[sniffing]

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[music fades]

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He was just fully driven.

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Not affectionate, not playful.

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His dominant instinct was to escape.

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[birds chirping]

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00:13:02,248 --> 00:13:06,552
He's a Temminck's pangolin,
but he's not fully bipedal yet.

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00:13:09,388 --> 00:13:10,856
So when he walks,

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00:13:10,923 --> 00:13:14,627
he'll still support himself a lot
with his arms.

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00:13:14,693 --> 00:13:17,830
[inspirational music playing]

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[Ray] Pangolins have been on planet Earth
for 85 million years.

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They evolved with the dinosaurs.

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It walks on its hind legs
with its two front legs like a T. rex,

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00:13:36,248 --> 00:13:37,316
just dotting along.

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00:13:37,383 --> 00:13:39,385
[inspirational music continues]

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There's no other mammal that's covered
in hard, overlapping scales,

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so that on its own
makes them absolutely unique.

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It's an ancient creature
that runs the risk of extinction.

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A creature that is unicorn-type status.

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00:14:02,474 --> 00:14:04,643
Because that's what it is, it's so rare.

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00:14:09,982 --> 00:14:13,152
So effectively, pangolins
can't open their mouth like we can.

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00:14:16,055 --> 00:14:19,225
They've got a small little hole
where the tongue comes out.

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00:14:21,227 --> 00:14:24,196
Their food is literally ants and termites.

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That's it.

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00:14:25,197 --> 00:14:27,199
[intriguing music playing]

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00:14:32,404 --> 00:14:34,306
Their hearing ability is very good.

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00:14:36,809 --> 00:14:38,477
Their eyesight is very poor.

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00:14:38,544 --> 00:14:40,546
[music continues]

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00:14:42,748 --> 00:14:43,649
[sniffing]

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00:14:43,716 --> 00:14:47,453
Their scenting capacity,
even better than a dog.

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00:14:47,519 --> 00:14:49,521
[continues sniffing]

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00:14:53,192 --> 00:14:54,293
They don't have vocal cords.

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They don't make a noise.

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00:14:59,131 --> 00:15:01,133
They're predominantly nocturnal.

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Sleep out in burrows.

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You wouldn't know
if that thing's five meters from you.

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You just don't see them.

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[sniffing]

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00:15:15,614 --> 00:15:18,350
They only have
one pup per female per year.

247
00:15:19,952 --> 00:15:22,721
And their parental care is extreme.

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Moms look after their pups
for six, seven months.

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00:15:28,260 --> 00:15:30,663
When they eventually leave the burrow,

250
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they ride on mom's back,
being taught how to feed on solid foods

251
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and what to look for.

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00:15:37,403 --> 00:15:39,405
And then they go off on their own.

253
00:15:42,841 --> 00:15:44,610
[music fades]

254
00:15:44,677 --> 00:15:46,679
[birds, insects chirping]

255
00:15:53,953 --> 00:15:55,888
[Gareth chuckling] Living with a pangolin,

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00:15:56,455 --> 00:15:58,090
it's very quiet.

257
00:16:01,860 --> 00:16:05,531
I redesigned my entire routine

258
00:16:06,398 --> 00:16:08,801
to suit his schedule.

259
00:16:08,867 --> 00:16:10,869
[bird calling]

260
00:16:12,771 --> 00:16:16,308
So a normal day
would pretty much be, wake up 4 a.m.,

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and then

262
00:16:19,244 --> 00:16:22,081
admin, running the business.

263
00:16:24,483 --> 00:16:27,953
And then, obviously,
waiting to hear the scratching at the box.

264
00:16:28,020 --> 00:16:30,055
[scratching on box]

265
00:16:34,326 --> 00:16:35,194
[door opens]

266
00:16:35,260 --> 00:16:37,463
-[switch clicks]
-[footsteps treading]

267
00:16:38,330 --> 00:16:40,432
[box door opens]

268
00:16:40,499 --> 00:16:41,934
[Gareth whispering] Hello, my buddy.

269
00:16:43,202 --> 00:16:45,738
[softly] Hello. Be a good boy.

270
00:16:46,338 --> 00:16:48,307
Ooh. Come on then, eh?

271
00:16:48,841 --> 00:16:51,377
Oh, shh. My buddy. Come on.

272
00:16:51,443 --> 00:16:55,748
You can put a plate of ants
in front of a pangolin, and it won't feed.

273
00:16:55,814 --> 00:16:58,183
Oh, that's a big yawn, hey? Come on.

274
00:16:58,250 --> 00:16:59,918
The only way we can get them to feed

275
00:16:59,985 --> 00:17:02,154
is by putting them down
and letting them forage.

276
00:17:02,221 --> 00:17:04,323
Okay. Hey? Okay, here we go.

277
00:17:05,024 --> 00:17:05,858
Here we go.

278
00:17:06,925 --> 00:17:09,828
Here we go, hey? Here we go, my buddy.

279
00:17:11,030 --> 00:17:11,964
There we go.

280
00:17:12,464 --> 00:17:15,734
[curious music playing]

281
00:17:22,441 --> 00:17:26,211
When you're looking for ants,
you have to get to know ants.

282
00:17:28,380 --> 00:17:30,516
Gijima took me into that world…

283
00:17:32,951 --> 00:17:35,654
on the very, very surface of the Earth.

284
00:17:36,989 --> 00:17:38,290
And beneath it.

285
00:17:44,063 --> 00:17:46,665
They share this underworld kingdom.

286
00:17:53,906 --> 00:17:56,175
-[whistles]
-It's a massive nest.

287
00:17:57,342 --> 00:17:59,611
Caswell is an ant doctor.

288
00:17:59,678 --> 00:18:01,647
-These are the savanna spiny ants.
-[Gareth] Yeah.

289
00:18:01,713 --> 00:18:04,383
He's so excited about the world of ants.

290
00:18:04,450 --> 00:18:06,318
I've got a taste for ants.

291
00:18:06,385 --> 00:18:07,319
Like pangolins.

292
00:18:07,886 --> 00:18:12,658
[chuckling] So… So, myrmecology is
the study of ants, in short.

293
00:18:12,724 --> 00:18:14,726
[bright music playing]

294
00:18:17,396 --> 00:18:20,566
I did not learn
how the natural environment works

295
00:18:20,632 --> 00:18:21,767
in the textbook.

296
00:18:24,870 --> 00:18:28,340
As a Muvenda young, uh, boy,

297
00:18:28,407 --> 00:18:29,675
I'd just go to the bush.

298
00:18:29,741 --> 00:18:31,743
[music continues]

299
00:18:36,582 --> 00:18:39,918
There were just stretches of land.
There was so much life in them.

300
00:18:40,486 --> 00:18:42,254
There were all these animals.

301
00:18:45,457 --> 00:18:48,494
But in all these years
of being out in the field,

302
00:18:49,061 --> 00:18:50,662
I've never seen a pangolin.

303
00:18:56,101 --> 00:18:59,938
The first time I saw a pangolin,
I saw it with Gareth.

304
00:19:04,910 --> 00:19:06,545
It was just amazing.

305
00:19:06,612 --> 00:19:08,614
[music continues]

306
00:19:11,750 --> 00:19:13,585
This mythical animal.

307
00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:19,458
It's got this physical appearance
of multiple animals combined.

308
00:19:22,561 --> 00:19:24,930
It was just something out of this world.

309
00:19:24,997 --> 00:19:28,233
[bright music continues]

310
00:19:40,579 --> 00:19:42,347
[music fades]

311
00:19:45,984 --> 00:19:49,688
In Lapalala right now,
I've got a long-term study,

312
00:19:50,189 --> 00:19:53,492
studying the response of ants
to climate change.

313
00:19:53,992 --> 00:19:56,695
You can see one of them there.
The small ones.

314
00:19:57,763 --> 00:19:59,064
[Gareth] Okay.

315
00:19:59,131 --> 00:20:00,866
[curious music playing]

316
00:20:02,034 --> 00:20:04,736
[Dr. Caswell] Ants are part of
what we call social animals,

317
00:20:04,803 --> 00:20:06,271
just like we are social too.

318
00:20:07,139 --> 00:20:08,907
And they all come from one family.

319
00:20:09,775 --> 00:20:11,777
The queen is this founding mother.

320
00:20:14,613 --> 00:20:16,848
You're the mother, and it's your world.

321
00:20:16,915 --> 00:20:20,118
And you've got these Terminator-like kids

322
00:20:20,185 --> 00:20:21,920
that only take orders.

323
00:20:21,987 --> 00:20:25,524
And everything that they do
is just for the success of the colony.

324
00:20:25,591 --> 00:20:27,593
[curious music continues]

325
00:20:29,494 --> 00:20:32,231
All ants that you see out are females.

326
00:20:32,931 --> 00:20:34,700
They're all sisters.

327
00:20:34,766 --> 00:20:36,635
It looks like they talk to each other.

328
00:20:37,803 --> 00:20:40,405
-[Dr. Caswell] It's grooming sometimes.
-They'll groom each other?

329
00:20:40,472 --> 00:20:41,873
[Dr. Caswell] Yeah, they'll groom.

330
00:20:45,644 --> 00:20:49,248
You are mostly seeing the older ones

331
00:20:50,682 --> 00:20:53,785
'cause the newborns and all the brothers
are still in the nest.

332
00:20:56,922 --> 00:20:59,524
So it seems like in a matured ant colony,

333
00:20:59,591 --> 00:21:03,996
the older you get,
the more risky job you do.

334
00:21:05,163 --> 00:21:07,232
[bird calling]

335
00:21:08,367 --> 00:21:10,369
[Gijima sniffing]

336
00:21:13,705 --> 00:21:16,842
[Gareth] When his nose is on the ground,
he's looking for food.

337
00:21:17,409 --> 00:21:22,414
He can smell ants
through a foot of hard, hard earth.

338
00:21:27,019 --> 00:21:29,621
So this larvae is, like,
what he's going for.

339
00:21:29,688 --> 00:21:31,890
All those miniature pieces of rice.

340
00:21:31,957 --> 00:21:33,225
Yeah. It's eggs.

341
00:21:33,292 --> 00:21:34,126
[Gareth] Yeah.

342
00:21:35,927 --> 00:21:37,062
He's feasting.

343
00:21:39,898 --> 00:21:41,667
It's like pangolin ice cream.

344
00:21:43,368 --> 00:21:45,470
The ants go into a total panic.

345
00:21:45,537 --> 00:21:47,572
[sniffing]

346
00:21:50,242 --> 00:21:53,745
It must just be this giant dragon

347
00:21:53,812 --> 00:21:56,515
coming to wipe you out.

348
00:21:56,581 --> 00:21:58,583
[continues sniffing]

349
00:22:02,487 --> 00:22:04,990
The ants will try and rescue their babies.

350
00:22:06,825 --> 00:22:08,293
So they'll pick them up,

351
00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:10,829
and they'll start carrying them
away from his attack

352
00:22:10,896 --> 00:22:12,431
as quickly as possible.

353
00:22:14,433 --> 00:22:16,435
[whimsical music playing]

354
00:22:21,273 --> 00:22:23,141
And when the ants bite him on his tongue,

355
00:22:23,809 --> 00:22:26,712
he pulls it between his claws
to get them off.

356
00:22:35,187 --> 00:22:38,323
And then sometimes,
he'll almost wrap it in a knot.

357
00:22:44,129 --> 00:22:45,697
[tempo decreases]

358
00:22:45,764 --> 00:22:47,666
[dramatic music plays]

359
00:22:50,402 --> 00:22:52,404
[music fades]

360
00:22:52,471 --> 00:22:54,473
-[insects chirping]
-[birds chirping]

361
00:23:00,479 --> 00:23:02,013
I mean, he was eating.

362
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:04,249
Um, he was definitely eating.

363
00:23:05,050 --> 00:23:06,918
But he still wants to run.

364
00:23:11,757 --> 00:23:14,559
I felt under a lot of pressure because

365
00:23:15,060 --> 00:23:19,965
there's just so much riding on
him being a successful release.

366
00:23:20,832 --> 00:23:25,570
We wanna establish this place
as a sanctuary for pangolins.

367
00:23:27,305 --> 00:23:29,274
If something goes wrong with him,

368
00:23:29,341 --> 00:23:32,377
then in all likelihood,
the project isn't gonna go ahead.

369
00:23:32,444 --> 00:23:33,879
[tense music playing]

370
00:23:33,945 --> 00:23:35,947
[electric fence buzzing]

371
00:23:36,882 --> 00:23:38,917
[buzzing loudly]

372
00:23:38,984 --> 00:23:42,120
[Gareth] Where we walk,
there is an electric fence around here.

373
00:23:42,187 --> 00:23:44,189
[tense music continues]

374
00:23:47,092 --> 00:23:50,262
[Ray] The lowest strand is about
20 centimeters off the ground.

375
00:23:50,829 --> 00:23:54,633
It's the perfect height
that a pangolin, walking on its hind legs,

376
00:23:54,699 --> 00:23:57,269
will walk into it,
and it hits it in the soft underbelly.

377
00:23:57,335 --> 00:24:00,705
Boom! That pulse can hit, and it's gonna
curl up in a protective ball.

378
00:24:01,273 --> 00:24:04,242
There it sits… [mimicking electric shocks]

379
00:24:04,309 --> 00:24:05,277
…until it's dead.

380
00:24:05,343 --> 00:24:07,245
[tense music continues]

381
00:24:07,312 --> 00:24:10,482
The death rate in this country
by electrocution is probably

382
00:24:10,549 --> 00:24:13,418
about six or seven orders of magnitude
higher than the illegal trade.

383
00:24:13,485 --> 00:24:15,487
[electric fence buzzing]

384
00:24:18,523 --> 00:24:22,828
Then, one day, I was walking
and got distracted for a split second.

385
00:24:22,894 --> 00:24:24,896
[Kulu sniffing]

386
00:24:27,666 --> 00:24:29,634
And I think he saw it as a gap.

387
00:24:31,036 --> 00:24:33,238
He just made a turn for the fence.

388
00:24:33,305 --> 00:24:35,640
[foreboding music playing]

389
00:24:35,707 --> 00:24:39,010
So I dived backwards
to push him away from the fence.

390
00:24:39,077 --> 00:24:40,345
[electric fence buzzing]

391
00:24:41,847 --> 00:24:45,183
And the current went through me,
and I did charge him.

392
00:24:45,250 --> 00:24:46,351
[electricity zaps]

393
00:24:47,219 --> 00:24:48,053
Hey.

394
00:24:52,824 --> 00:24:55,160
-[somber music playing]
-[distressed breathing]

395
00:25:01,032 --> 00:25:03,902
He just starts shaking like crazy.

396
00:25:07,706 --> 00:25:08,740
It's okay, hey?

397
00:25:10,375 --> 00:25:11,276
It's like this…

398
00:25:11,343 --> 00:25:12,711
[trilling]

399
00:25:12,777 --> 00:25:14,779
[rapid distressed breathing]

400
00:25:24,589 --> 00:25:28,560
The problem is that he hadn't associated
the charge with the fence.

401
00:25:28,627 --> 00:25:30,962
He had associated the charge with me.

402
00:25:32,297 --> 00:25:35,300
Hey. It's okay. Hey. It's me, my buddy.

403
00:25:35,967 --> 00:25:37,435
It's me. Hey.

404
00:25:38,537 --> 00:25:41,973
It's okay. Hey. It's me.

405
00:25:43,808 --> 00:25:44,676
Hey.

406
00:25:46,044 --> 00:25:48,280
I just had to give him space.

407
00:25:49,114 --> 00:25:51,116
[distressed breathing]

408
00:25:54,553 --> 00:25:55,954
[sniffing]

409
00:26:02,127 --> 00:26:03,461
It felt horrible.

410
00:26:03,528 --> 00:26:07,999
Come on, it's okay.
Hey, my buddy. It's okay. It's me.

411
00:26:09,134 --> 00:26:11,336
[somber music playing]

412
00:26:11,403 --> 00:26:13,738
I just felt disappointed with myself.

413
00:26:17,742 --> 00:26:19,744
[intriguing music playing]

414
00:26:25,016 --> 00:26:29,988
[Gareth] My whole life,
I've had a fear that I'm not enough.

415
00:26:33,224 --> 00:26:36,761
School was difficult. I was hyperactive.

416
00:26:36,828 --> 00:26:38,396
I could not sit still.

417
00:26:43,201 --> 00:26:45,070
I was sort of a rebel in my youth.

418
00:26:45,637 --> 00:26:48,673
I went to two,
three different high schools,

419
00:26:48,740 --> 00:26:50,842
and eventually, I dropped out.

420
00:26:50,909 --> 00:26:52,944
[music continues]

421
00:26:54,112 --> 00:26:57,649
For a good three years,
I was earning a living playing poker.

422
00:27:00,418 --> 00:27:01,252
Partying.

423
00:27:02,954 --> 00:27:04,055
I loved it.

424
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:09,394
[dramatic sting]

425
00:27:09,461 --> 00:27:13,264
And then two of my best friends
died in a car accident.

426
00:27:13,331 --> 00:27:15,333
[melancholic music playing]

427
00:27:17,202 --> 00:27:20,071
It just tore my heart apart.

428
00:27:20,138 --> 00:27:22,474
[music continues]

429
00:27:30,215 --> 00:27:33,018
I had become so disconnected.

430
00:27:35,420 --> 00:27:37,455
I slowly started realizing

431
00:27:38,156 --> 00:27:40,525
that I was just never going to be happy

432
00:27:41,059 --> 00:27:43,628
unless I found something else.

433
00:27:43,695 --> 00:27:46,197
-[music continues]
-[birds chirping]

434
00:27:52,737 --> 00:27:55,573
All of my school holidays,
I got sent up to Zimbabwe

435
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:57,942
to go play in the wild.

436
00:28:03,281 --> 00:28:08,286
I kind of just remember
this very strong sense of freedom

437
00:28:08,353 --> 00:28:09,454
being out there.

438
00:28:15,026 --> 00:28:16,528
This sense of stillness.

439
00:28:21,232 --> 00:28:22,133
[birds squawking]

440
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,302
I wanted to be involved with wildlife,

441
00:28:24,836 --> 00:28:26,805
but I was running a business in Joburg.

442
00:28:27,672 --> 00:28:30,975
I couldn't be out in the bush
all the time the way I wanted to be.

443
00:28:31,042 --> 00:28:31,910
Ja.

444
00:28:31,976 --> 00:28:34,279
So then I got in touch with Ray,

445
00:28:34,345 --> 00:28:37,282
and he took me to the Joburg Wildlife Vet.

446
00:28:38,583 --> 00:28:41,352
And I saw my first pangolin.

447
00:28:41,419 --> 00:28:44,122
[hopeful music playing]

448
00:28:49,394 --> 00:28:52,664
There was a before world
and an after world.

449
00:29:00,205 --> 00:29:03,074
I started walking them every single day.

450
00:29:03,141 --> 00:29:05,143
[music continues]

451
00:29:10,648 --> 00:29:13,651
They have such a softness about them.

452
00:29:17,388 --> 00:29:19,924
I've been taught my entire life,

453
00:29:19,991 --> 00:29:22,594
"No, you don't talk about your feelings."

454
00:29:26,231 --> 00:29:30,401
But I think the difference
between pangolins and people is,

455
00:29:31,136 --> 00:29:33,505
it's far easier
to be vulnerable around a pangolin.

456
00:29:33,571 --> 00:29:35,573
[music continues]

457
00:29:38,543 --> 00:29:41,079
They're not gonna judge
that vulnerability.

458
00:29:41,780 --> 00:29:43,681
They sort of see the real you.

459
00:29:45,617 --> 00:29:48,953
This is you right now,
right here, and that's it.

460
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,129
[music fades]

461
00:29:58,196 --> 00:30:00,198
[animals calling]

462
00:30:05,837 --> 00:30:07,839
After the electric fence,

463
00:30:07,906 --> 00:30:10,508
it's taken him a long time to forgive me.

464
00:30:12,510 --> 00:30:14,579
You run around in the garden…

465
00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:19,884
while I put my shoes on. Okay? Hey? Okay?

466
00:30:20,885 --> 00:30:22,887
Don't go climbing over
the fence or anything.

467
00:30:22,954 --> 00:30:24,222
I'll be back in a jiffy.

468
00:30:30,061 --> 00:30:33,131
[Nicci] Each pangolin is different
like people are different.

469
00:30:34,799 --> 00:30:38,570
Some pangolins just roll around
being friends with everybody.

470
00:30:38,636 --> 00:30:40,572
[helicopter whirring]

471
00:30:40,638 --> 00:30:44,342
Some are very sensitive
and highly strung, maybe.

472
00:30:44,409 --> 00:30:45,944
[sniffing]

473
00:30:46,010 --> 00:30:47,979
He just couldn't settle.

474
00:30:53,251 --> 00:30:55,253
[birds chirping]

475
00:30:55,887 --> 00:30:56,988
[insect buzzing]

476
00:30:58,790 --> 00:31:01,292
[Gareth] In Zulu, "gijima" means "run."

477
00:31:04,395 --> 00:31:08,900
If I'm constantly calling him "run,"
maybe he understands that.

478
00:31:08,967 --> 00:31:11,402
[Gijima sniffing]

479
00:31:11,469 --> 00:31:14,672
"Kulula" means "easy" in Zulu.

480
00:31:15,173 --> 00:31:17,542
[sniffing]

481
00:31:17,609 --> 00:31:20,178
And so I just started calling him Kulu.

482
00:31:22,547 --> 00:31:24,415
That didn't work at all with him.

483
00:31:28,286 --> 00:31:29,921
Kulu does whatever he wants to do.

484
00:31:31,356 --> 00:31:32,223
[exhales sharply]

485
00:31:32,757 --> 00:31:34,759
[birds chirping]

486
00:31:41,432 --> 00:31:42,367
Okay.

487
00:31:43,067 --> 00:31:46,037
Do you wanna go down here, huh?
Go down here?

488
00:31:47,639 --> 00:31:50,041
Come here. Come on. Get down.

489
00:31:50,708 --> 00:31:55,146
I sort of tried
to set up boundaries for him.

490
00:31:55,213 --> 00:31:57,382
[curious music playing]

491
00:31:57,448 --> 00:31:58,883
There are certain blocks

492
00:31:58,950 --> 00:32:02,153
which have pretty much
been marked out by roads.

493
00:32:04,656 --> 00:32:06,291
He doesn't like boundaries.

494
00:32:08,092 --> 00:32:09,694
He's very crafty.

495
00:32:11,262 --> 00:32:13,932
If I'm there, he definitely pauses.

496
00:32:13,998 --> 00:32:16,000
[curious music continues]

497
00:32:21,005 --> 00:32:22,974
And then there's that sort of mad dash

498
00:32:23,641 --> 00:32:26,711
to try and get across the road,
hoping that I don't see him.

499
00:32:26,778 --> 00:32:29,013
Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Uh-uh.

500
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,082
[tempo increases]

501
00:32:38,389 --> 00:32:40,391
[tempo decreases]

502
00:32:49,567 --> 00:32:51,569
[tempo increases]

503
00:32:52,337 --> 00:32:53,171
[Gareth] Uh-uh.

504
00:32:55,139 --> 00:32:56,174
Uh-uh.

505
00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:58,076
[tempo decreases]

506
00:33:00,178 --> 00:33:01,579
[music ends]

507
00:33:06,551 --> 00:33:08,553
-[insects chirping]
-[birds calling]

508
00:33:18,863 --> 00:33:21,499
Are you eating
because you heard me coming?

509
00:33:22,700 --> 00:33:25,503
Or are you just being a good boy?

510
00:33:28,072 --> 00:33:31,175
He's figured out that
so long as he's eating,

511
00:33:31,709 --> 00:33:33,044
I don't pick him up.

512
00:33:33,111 --> 00:33:35,213
So if he's eating, I don't pick him up.

513
00:33:35,913 --> 00:33:37,148
So if he's running

514
00:33:37,882 --> 00:33:40,918
and I stop
and I go towards him to pick him up,

515
00:33:41,686 --> 00:33:44,722
he'll start scratching,
whether there's food there or not.

516
00:33:47,658 --> 00:33:49,027
He's like a little kid.

517
00:33:50,228 --> 00:33:52,697
You have to redirect his awareness.

518
00:33:52,764 --> 00:33:55,466
Otherwise, he's just like,
"Okay, cool, now I'm exploring."

519
00:33:59,237 --> 00:34:01,973
[Gareth] Part of his rewilding,

520
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:05,076
he needs to investigate in burrows.

521
00:34:19,924 --> 00:34:23,861
[Ray] You've got porcupine,
bushpig, warthogs making burrows.

522
00:34:24,429 --> 00:34:25,863
Aardvarks, certainly.

523
00:34:25,930 --> 00:34:28,866
And then pangolins modifying them.

524
00:34:38,142 --> 00:34:40,144
[whimsical music playing]

525
00:34:40,978 --> 00:34:41,813
[Gareth] Ow!

526
00:34:43,147 --> 00:34:46,851
Sometimes, in the evening,
he sneaks into burrows

527
00:34:46,918 --> 00:34:48,986
because he obviously wants to sleep out.

528
00:34:50,421 --> 00:34:55,326
What that means for me is
I have to try to take him out.

529
00:34:56,294 --> 00:34:57,595
[Nicci] Oh God.

530
00:34:58,830 --> 00:35:00,898
You're hoping
there isn't a warthog in there.

531
00:35:03,034 --> 00:35:05,703
And then I'm always thinking
of snakes coming out of there.

532
00:35:06,337 --> 00:35:07,405
Spiders.

533
00:35:10,541 --> 00:35:11,742
[Gareth] I need to know that

534
00:35:11,809 --> 00:35:13,978
he's not just gonna come out
of the burrow at 1 a.m.

535
00:35:14,045 --> 00:35:16,547
and then make a mad dash for freedom.

536
00:35:18,683 --> 00:35:19,717
[Gareth exhales]

537
00:35:20,384 --> 00:35:21,319
Oh God.

538
00:35:25,223 --> 00:35:26,090
[grunting]

539
00:35:31,629 --> 00:35:32,563
Ow!

540
00:35:32,630 --> 00:35:34,999
[laughing] I've been stuck
in a few burrows.

541
00:35:35,066 --> 00:35:38,002
I have had to be
pulled out of a few burrows, yes.

542
00:35:38,069 --> 00:35:39,637
Okay, I'll walk you up.

543
00:35:39,704 --> 00:35:41,672
-Wheelbarrow.
-Okay, slowly, ja?

544
00:35:41,739 --> 00:35:43,574
[percussive music playing]

545
00:35:43,641 --> 00:35:45,176
[groaning]

546
00:35:46,043 --> 00:35:48,880
-[man] You all right?
-I just squashed my ball on this branch.

547
00:35:48,946 --> 00:35:49,981
Oh my God.

548
00:35:50,815 --> 00:35:51,816
[groaning]

549
00:35:51,883 --> 00:35:53,885
[percussive music continues]

550
00:35:55,953 --> 00:35:57,488
It's cool that he's in there,

551
00:35:57,555 --> 00:36:01,959
but that does mean, like,
a sleepless night for me.

552
00:36:04,228 --> 00:36:06,230
[bird calling]

553
00:36:06,931 --> 00:36:08,299
I slept next to him.

554
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,336
I put my feet
in the entrance of the burrow

555
00:36:12,403 --> 00:36:16,340
'cause if I fell asleep,
I would feel him crawling over me.

556
00:36:16,407 --> 00:36:18,409
[animals calling]

557
00:36:21,979 --> 00:36:23,981
[birds chirping]

558
00:36:35,159 --> 00:36:38,196
Slowly, over time,
I've learned to trust him.

559
00:36:48,839 --> 00:36:51,876
Just the sense of freedom
that I can give him out here.

560
00:36:55,446 --> 00:36:57,582
I can leave him for an hour at a time,

561
00:36:57,648 --> 00:37:00,885
and then to find him, I use the telemetry.

562
00:37:00,952 --> 00:37:02,019
[telemetry beeping]

563
00:37:10,027 --> 00:37:12,029
[Kulu sniffing]

564
00:37:13,064 --> 00:37:16,234
[Dr. Caswell] Every time you walk
with Kulu, you see new things.

565
00:37:18,436 --> 00:37:21,105
[sniffing intently]

566
00:37:21,172 --> 00:37:25,142
As pangolins forage,
they will not disrupt the whole colony.

567
00:37:28,813 --> 00:37:30,514
They will eat just enough.

568
00:37:34,051 --> 00:37:35,653
For me, that is so smart.

569
00:37:40,691 --> 00:37:43,160
[scratching]

570
00:37:46,530 --> 00:37:49,834
You just see, like, the entire surface
of the Earth is just moving,

571
00:37:49,900 --> 00:37:51,569
and it's crawling the whole time.

572
00:37:52,903 --> 00:37:53,904
It's quite wild.

573
00:37:56,173 --> 00:37:59,043
This is all just
one giant pugnacious nest.

574
00:38:00,945 --> 00:38:06,217
The most aggressive, dominant ants,
and scary too, is the pugnacious.

575
00:38:06,751 --> 00:38:08,552
[dramatic music plays]

576
00:38:08,619 --> 00:38:10,788
We know who's the biggest enemy
of pugnacious ants.

577
00:38:11,789 --> 00:38:12,857
It's the pangolin.

578
00:38:12,923 --> 00:38:15,126
[dramatic music continues]

579
00:38:19,230 --> 00:38:21,532
Pugnacious, they will eat anything.

580
00:38:23,167 --> 00:38:24,735
They'll overwhelm certain insects.

581
00:38:26,671 --> 00:38:29,874
Even some small mammals, like rats.

582
00:38:29,940 --> 00:38:33,377
Some birds, small chicks that can't fly,
they will be eaten as well.

583
00:38:38,649 --> 00:38:40,284
Around this termite mound,

584
00:38:40,351 --> 00:38:43,087
this is a huge hunting ground
for the pugnacious ants.

585
00:38:47,692 --> 00:38:51,028
When the pangolins go and eat termites…

586
00:38:53,431 --> 00:38:56,033
ants like pugnacious will also benefit,

587
00:38:56,867 --> 00:39:00,404
scavenging on the leftovers
of the pangolin.

588
00:39:00,471 --> 00:39:03,040
[dramatic music continues]

589
00:39:09,113 --> 00:39:12,283
[Gareth] The snouted termite soldiers
all stand by,

590
00:39:12,350 --> 00:39:14,318
with their snouts pointed upwards.

591
00:39:15,353 --> 00:39:19,523
And then, if a pugnacious
comes in close proximity to them,

592
00:39:20,091 --> 00:39:22,126
they'll spray out this toxic glue.

593
00:39:22,193 --> 00:39:25,262
[ominous music playing]

594
00:39:28,799 --> 00:39:31,235
It completely deters the pugnacious.

595
00:39:31,302 --> 00:39:33,304
[music continues]

596
00:39:40,211 --> 00:39:44,782
And that gives the workers enough time
to pull the larvae back into the nest…

597
00:39:49,487 --> 00:39:51,722
and then quickly close up the tunnels.

598
00:39:51,789 --> 00:39:53,791
[ominous music continues]

599
00:40:00,998 --> 00:40:03,000
[music fades]

600
00:40:10,474 --> 00:40:11,742
[insects chirping]

601
00:40:11,809 --> 00:40:13,811
[jackal howling]

602
00:40:22,219 --> 00:40:24,221
[animals calling]

603
00:40:36,300 --> 00:40:41,205
[Gareth] He has this incredible drive
to be free.

604
00:40:42,740 --> 00:40:45,876
But we need to get to six and a half kg.

605
00:40:48,312 --> 00:40:50,781
[Nicci] A pangolin of six and a half kg

606
00:40:50,848 --> 00:40:52,349
is really strong,

607
00:40:53,017 --> 00:40:56,487
and it can hold itself into a tight ball

608
00:40:56,554 --> 00:40:58,823
and, therefore,
protect itself against predators.

609
00:40:58,889 --> 00:41:00,891
[uplifting music playing]

610
00:41:11,502 --> 00:41:14,438
[Gareth] It's taken Kulu a long time

611
00:41:14,505 --> 00:41:17,441
to feel secure in the environment.

612
00:41:19,844 --> 00:41:24,048
I started seeing signs of him
settling down and calming.

613
00:41:24,114 --> 00:41:26,116
[sniffing]

614
00:41:27,251 --> 00:41:30,020
There was that definite shift in him.

615
00:41:30,087 --> 00:41:32,089
[music continues]

616
00:41:36,694 --> 00:41:38,462
He started trusting me.

617
00:41:43,033 --> 00:41:44,835
Oh, there's the good stuff.

618
00:41:44,902 --> 00:41:48,038
There we go. Oh, is that the goodness?

619
00:41:48,672 --> 00:41:51,842
Pangolins are not great
at regulating their body temperature.

620
00:41:52,409 --> 00:41:53,410
There we go.

621
00:41:53,477 --> 00:41:57,448
We were out, and I poured a little bit
of water on him, trying to cool him down.

622
00:41:57,515 --> 00:41:59,316
On the belly, there you go.

623
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:05,155
And he starts doing little 360s

624
00:42:05,222 --> 00:42:07,758
and crawling around the tree
like a maniac.

625
00:42:08,325 --> 00:42:09,660
Hey, there we go.

626
00:42:12,930 --> 00:42:15,232
What are you doing? Hey?

627
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:18,536
Is that fun, my boy, hey? Is that nice?

628
00:42:19,169 --> 00:42:20,437
Hey? Nice and cool.

629
00:42:21,872 --> 00:42:23,874
[uplifting music continues]

630
00:42:25,910 --> 00:42:30,247
Sometimes, when they're playing,
they'll wrap their tail around your arm.

631
00:42:36,153 --> 00:42:40,624
That was the first time that Kulu
actually really allowed me to lift him up,

632
00:42:40,691 --> 00:42:43,394
and he was using my arm as a play tool.

633
00:42:48,632 --> 00:42:52,202
To be held by the tail and rolled around,
that's fun for him.

634
00:43:09,453 --> 00:43:11,255
He just started opening up,

635
00:43:11,322 --> 00:43:14,725
and a playful side started to emerge.

636
00:43:25,402 --> 00:43:29,340
He went through
this just horrific experience

637
00:43:29,406 --> 00:43:31,075
at the hands of humans.

638
00:43:31,141 --> 00:43:32,710
[joyful music playing]

639
00:43:32,776 --> 00:43:34,278
So much fun, hey?

640
00:43:36,513 --> 00:43:39,383
More? You want more? You want more?

641
00:43:39,450 --> 00:43:43,053
For him to then give me
that level of trust

642
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:44,622
is incredibly validating.

643
00:43:44,688 --> 00:43:47,791
You want more? Come on then. Come on, you.

644
00:43:47,858 --> 00:43:49,860
[joyful music continues]

645
00:43:59,637 --> 00:44:02,539
He's learning
how to protect himself through play.

646
00:44:03,941 --> 00:44:08,379
Their core strength needs to be
incredibly strong and developed.

647
00:44:13,384 --> 00:44:17,421
He developed it,
doing sit-ups and doing crunches

648
00:44:18,288 --> 00:44:19,590
and doing pull-ups.

649
00:44:19,657 --> 00:44:20,758
[Gareth laughs]

650
00:44:20,824 --> 00:44:22,826
[joyful music continues]

651
00:44:49,687 --> 00:44:50,788
[branch snaps]

652
00:44:53,457 --> 00:44:54,625
[music fades]

653
00:44:56,260 --> 00:44:58,162
[monkeys barking]

654
00:44:58,228 --> 00:45:00,698
[barking, chittering]

655
00:45:02,966 --> 00:45:04,201
[door opens]

656
00:45:05,135 --> 00:45:06,704
[Gareth] We've been here for six months.

657
00:45:06,770 --> 00:45:07,905
Big boy.

658
00:45:07,971 --> 00:45:10,574
We're very close to our freedom.

659
00:45:11,075 --> 00:45:13,944
Come on. Come here.
Can I have a nice yawn? Hey?

660
00:45:14,011 --> 00:45:16,547
[Nicci] We know when they're ready
for their release process

661
00:45:16,613 --> 00:45:20,818
when they are displaying
very relaxed behavior.

662
00:45:22,252 --> 00:45:25,689
They're feeding nicely.
They're consistently putting on weight.

663
00:45:28,358 --> 00:45:32,463
[Gareth] Where we are now
is about a 45-minute drive

664
00:45:32,529 --> 00:45:34,998
from where he's going to be released.

665
00:45:35,065 --> 00:45:37,835
First one down, my bud. First one down.

666
00:45:38,435 --> 00:45:40,003
With a satellite tag,

667
00:45:40,070 --> 00:45:42,539
I'll be able to see
his location on my phone.

668
00:45:45,609 --> 00:45:49,346
Every hour,
I'll get a ping to say, "I'm here."

669
00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:51,815
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, my bud.

670
00:45:51,882 --> 00:45:56,286
But even with that,
the stakes are very high.

671
00:45:56,353 --> 00:45:58,756
[tense music playing]

672
00:46:01,725 --> 00:46:04,728
[monkeys screeching]

673
00:46:08,165 --> 00:46:10,567
[Ray] We'd release
a perfectly healthy pangolin,

674
00:46:10,634 --> 00:46:12,102
and they would die overnight.

675
00:46:13,370 --> 00:46:15,506
We've lost pangolin to honey badger,

676
00:46:16,507 --> 00:46:19,009
lion, leopard, hyena, even elephant.

677
00:46:20,611 --> 00:46:23,447
Every pangolin is gonna face his dangers,

678
00:46:24,114 --> 00:46:27,217
but at some stage, Kulu needs to be wild.

679
00:46:28,752 --> 00:46:30,320
Can I see a yawn now?

680
00:46:31,121 --> 00:46:33,390
Hey? Are you tired, my buddy?

681
00:46:33,457 --> 00:46:34,458
Hey?

682
00:46:47,671 --> 00:46:49,673
[hopeful music playing]

683
00:46:54,211 --> 00:47:00,083
[Gareth] Where we're releasing Kulu,
it is pangolin paradise.

684
00:47:04,288 --> 00:47:07,724
You've got an incredible amount

685
00:47:07,791 --> 00:47:11,228
of ant and termite activity there.

686
00:47:17,234 --> 00:47:21,471
What I have to do
is completely reestablish him

687
00:47:22,172 --> 00:47:24,975
so he knows where he is
every second of the day.

688
00:47:27,044 --> 00:47:31,615
He'll familiarize himself
with the different smells in the area,

689
00:47:32,182 --> 00:47:34,785
where the potential dangers are.

690
00:47:34,852 --> 00:47:36,186
[low rumbling]

691
00:47:43,627 --> 00:47:45,529
Hey, come on. Come here.

692
00:47:46,296 --> 00:47:47,798
Come on. Okay, all right.

693
00:47:47,865 --> 00:47:49,600
Are you raring to go?

694
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:53,337
There you go. Hey? You know where you are.

695
00:48:05,215 --> 00:48:07,651
[adventurous music playing]

696
00:48:07,718 --> 00:48:09,720
[Kulu sniffing]

697
00:48:18,328 --> 00:48:20,397
Over the course of the first three days,

698
00:48:20,464 --> 00:48:23,100
he was moving
three to four kilometers in a day.

699
00:48:24,768 --> 00:48:26,637
It's a massive area.

700
00:48:26,703 --> 00:48:28,438
Ja, he's motored.

701
00:48:28,505 --> 00:48:29,439
[telemetry beeps]

702
00:48:32,209 --> 00:48:34,778
He'll feed as quickly as possible…

703
00:48:36,947 --> 00:48:40,851
and just cover
as much distance as possible.

704
00:48:40,918 --> 00:48:43,553
[rousing music playing]

705
00:48:45,856 --> 00:48:48,358
Where are we going?
There's a leopard here.

706
00:48:49,059 --> 00:48:51,795
Are you sure you wanna be up here? Huh?

707
00:48:51,862 --> 00:48:53,563
It was all very frantic.

708
00:48:53,630 --> 00:48:56,800
[rousing music continues]

709
00:49:10,681 --> 00:49:11,748
Stay in the shade.

710
00:49:13,283 --> 00:49:15,919
[sniffing]

711
00:49:23,126 --> 00:49:24,261
[music ends]

712
00:49:24,328 --> 00:49:26,330
[birds chirping]

713
00:49:27,831 --> 00:49:30,100
I mean, he needs to at least

714
00:49:30,167 --> 00:49:33,503
spend a week or two in an area

715
00:49:33,570 --> 00:49:35,706
and then explore, but, you know,

716
00:49:35,772 --> 00:49:39,543
not just sort of day after day
after day after day, just running.

717
00:49:47,751 --> 00:49:51,588
There's only so much pressure
I can put on him to eat.

718
00:49:57,761 --> 00:49:59,196
Oh, that is pretty, huh?

719
00:50:02,632 --> 00:50:03,800
[lion roars]

720
00:50:06,003 --> 00:50:08,005
[moaning]

721
00:50:14,444 --> 00:50:16,246
[roaring playfully]

722
00:50:16,313 --> 00:50:17,614
[pensive music playing]

723
00:50:17,681 --> 00:50:19,683
[continues roaring]

724
00:50:27,224 --> 00:50:28,058
Come on.

725
00:50:29,459 --> 00:50:31,595
Come on, my boy.
We still need to eat, bud.

726
00:50:34,231 --> 00:50:36,700
[lion roaring in distance]

727
00:50:44,141 --> 00:50:47,944
There we go, hey? There we go, my boy.

728
00:50:48,011 --> 00:50:49,646
[uplifting music playing]

729
00:50:53,116 --> 00:50:54,251
[loud rustling]

730
00:50:54,317 --> 00:50:55,152
Stop.

731
00:50:58,121 --> 00:51:00,190
I heard something bugger off there.

732
00:51:00,257 --> 00:51:01,425
[tense music playing]

733
00:51:01,491 --> 00:51:02,893
[low growling]

734
00:51:02,959 --> 00:51:05,328
Ja, there's monsters in the bushes here.

735
00:51:05,395 --> 00:51:07,164
[tense music continues]

736
00:51:10,333 --> 00:51:11,701
[hyenas howling]

737
00:51:13,937 --> 00:51:17,474
This little flay area
is just leopard paradise.

738
00:51:17,541 --> 00:51:19,543
[low growling]

739
00:51:21,378 --> 00:51:24,614
At night,
the wild is a very different place.

740
00:51:25,248 --> 00:51:29,319
Lions become
a very different animal after dark.

741
00:51:30,487 --> 00:51:31,855
So do leopard.

742
00:51:40,263 --> 00:51:42,265
[low growling]

743
00:51:42,933 --> 00:51:45,068
[loud roaring]

744
00:51:45,135 --> 00:51:46,536
Hearing a leopard…

745
00:51:46,603 --> 00:51:47,737
[hyenas chittering]

746
00:51:47,804 --> 00:51:49,473
…hyenas walking around.

747
00:51:50,073 --> 00:51:52,042
That's a very definitive warning.

748
00:51:52,109 --> 00:51:53,276
[frantic music playing]

749
00:51:53,343 --> 00:51:55,312
He's freaking out.

750
00:51:59,349 --> 00:52:01,718
Okay, my boy. I got you.

751
00:52:02,252 --> 00:52:04,588
I got you, my buddy. I got you.

752
00:52:08,158 --> 00:52:09,392
[gentle music playing]

753
00:52:10,060 --> 00:52:11,228
Okay, here, boy.

754
00:52:27,878 --> 00:52:28,778
[beeps]

755
00:52:28,845 --> 00:52:30,614
He's burning a lot of energy.

756
00:52:33,750 --> 00:52:38,255
This evening, he was, I think,
the lowest he's been for over a week,

757
00:52:39,022 --> 00:52:42,959
so it's… it's a noticeable weight drop.

758
00:52:47,063 --> 00:52:50,567
And the potential is
is then we start going backwards.

759
00:52:54,404 --> 00:52:58,141
[dramatic whoosh]

760
00:53:01,344 --> 00:53:02,646
[line ringing]

761
00:53:05,882 --> 00:53:10,620
He's used more energy
than he's been able to take in.

762
00:53:11,254 --> 00:53:14,157
[Nicci on phone] That makes sense.
Remember what he was like.

763
00:53:14,224 --> 00:53:17,160
He used to run, and then he slowly,
over time, settled down.

764
00:53:17,227 --> 00:53:20,297
-That's what you're waiting for him to do.
-I want him to do it immediately.

765
00:53:20,363 --> 00:53:22,199
-Just waiting for him to settle down.
-[laughs]

766
00:53:22,265 --> 00:53:24,668
-[Nicci laughs]
-[Gareth] No, I want him to do it now.

767
00:53:25,769 --> 00:53:28,772
[Nicci] I think when rational advice
has failed,

768
00:53:29,306 --> 00:53:32,275
the only advice
is to trust your own instinct.

769
00:53:33,210 --> 00:53:35,545
And also to trust the pangolin.

770
00:53:35,612 --> 00:53:38,248
'Cause the pangolin
has got such strong instincts.

771
00:53:38,315 --> 00:53:40,317
[pensive music playing]

772
00:53:42,819 --> 00:53:45,422
[Gareth] Rule number one
is don't lose the pangolin.

773
00:53:50,327 --> 00:53:53,163
I was trying to give him
a little bit more space.

774
00:53:53,763 --> 00:53:55,465
Just to try and get him to calm down.

775
00:53:55,532 --> 00:53:57,534
[music continues]

776
00:54:01,938 --> 00:54:05,575
But forgetting the telemetry,
it's just such a stupid mistake.

777
00:54:08,178 --> 00:54:10,380
If he gets into a certain area

778
00:54:10,447 --> 00:54:14,517
and his tags come off,
I might never find him again.

779
00:54:16,686 --> 00:54:18,955
Then there's the electric fence.

780
00:54:19,022 --> 00:54:21,391
That fence is just certain death.

781
00:54:21,458 --> 00:54:23,960
And he can do a kilometer in an hour.

782
00:54:24,027 --> 00:54:26,029
[tense music playing]

783
00:54:32,535 --> 00:54:34,304
You guys go back to the car.

784
00:54:35,438 --> 00:54:37,240
It's making me anxious.

785
00:54:38,008 --> 00:54:38,975
Like, now.

786
00:54:43,346 --> 00:54:45,148
[Nicci] You feel so responsible.

787
00:54:45,982 --> 00:54:49,386
You feel responsible
to the team of people that are behind you,

788
00:54:50,020 --> 00:54:52,656
but most of all,
you feel responsible to that animal.

789
00:54:52,722 --> 00:54:54,724
[music continues]

790
00:55:00,797 --> 00:55:02,999
[Gareth] Because the satellite tag
is not checking in,

791
00:55:03,066 --> 00:55:06,036
we can't pinpoint him down to…

792
00:55:07,637 --> 00:55:11,341
exactly where he is
so that we can actually find him.

793
00:55:12,242 --> 00:55:14,411
You know, we walked around
looking for him, but…

794
00:55:15,045 --> 00:55:17,681
I mean, it's like trying to find a ghost.

795
00:55:17,747 --> 00:55:19,749
[tense music continues]

796
00:55:20,750 --> 00:55:22,352
[screeching]

797
00:55:32,262 --> 00:55:34,397
-[phone chimes]
-Oh, he's just clocked in.

798
00:55:34,464 --> 00:55:37,100
Okay, let's go.
Uh, he's just gone further north,

799
00:55:37,167 --> 00:55:39,903
and he's on that side of the road.
Come on, let's go.

800
00:55:39,969 --> 00:55:40,870
[engine starts]

801
00:55:40,937 --> 00:55:42,939
[tense music continues]

802
00:55:45,442 --> 00:55:47,711
He's now been gone
for two and a half hours.

803
00:55:59,889 --> 00:56:00,990
[engine stops]

804
00:56:01,057 --> 00:56:03,059
[suspenseful music playing]

805
00:56:06,196 --> 00:56:09,532
We found him just under a tree,

806
00:56:09,599 --> 00:56:10,900
eating termites.

807
00:56:10,967 --> 00:56:12,969
[joyful music playing]

808
00:56:17,407 --> 00:56:20,043
And I think it was in that moment,

809
00:56:21,177 --> 00:56:24,013
it was kind of like, "He's got this."

810
00:56:32,255 --> 00:56:34,891
He doesn't need me
being this helicopter parent,

811
00:56:34,958 --> 00:56:36,226
watching over him.

812
00:56:40,530 --> 00:56:42,432
At the thornbush there. No.

813
00:56:43,767 --> 00:56:44,734
Hmm.

814
00:56:47,871 --> 00:56:52,175
You can't control everything,
and my sort of knee-jerk is, "Yes, I can."

815
00:56:52,242 --> 00:56:53,209
[laughs]

816
00:56:56,246 --> 00:57:01,017
But I think, yeah,
there is that reality that, "No, I can't."

817
00:57:01,651 --> 00:57:02,685
Hello, my champ.

818
00:57:03,820 --> 00:57:06,122
Hello, my champ. Hello.

819
00:57:07,223 --> 00:57:08,658
What's up? Come on.

820
00:57:08,725 --> 00:57:10,660
[music continues]

821
00:57:22,272 --> 00:57:26,509
There's been less than a handful of times
where he's actually come to me.

822
00:57:30,213 --> 00:57:32,749
-[endearing music playing]
-[sniffing]

823
00:57:32,816 --> 00:57:34,684
Aw. Aw.

824
00:57:34,751 --> 00:57:37,387
My boy. Hey.

825
00:57:38,254 --> 00:57:39,289
Hello.

826
00:57:40,623 --> 00:57:42,125
Oh my goodness.

827
00:57:42,192 --> 00:57:44,227
[endearing music continues]

828
00:57:45,895 --> 00:57:46,729
Hey.

829
00:57:47,864 --> 00:57:49,999
Oh my goodness, my boy.

830
00:57:51,801 --> 00:57:53,002
Are you cleaning me?

831
00:57:57,874 --> 00:58:00,543
Do I need a clean? Hey?

832
00:58:03,413 --> 00:58:06,115
He sort of reassured me and said,

833
00:58:07,517 --> 00:58:09,018
"Everything's gonna be fine."

834
00:58:09,752 --> 00:58:10,587
Hey?

835
00:58:10,653 --> 00:58:12,655
[endearing music continues]

836
00:58:12,722 --> 00:58:14,724
[sniffing]

837
00:58:22,465 --> 00:58:23,566
That is crazy.

838
00:58:30,039 --> 00:58:32,909
Hey? Thank you for that, my boy. Hey?

839
00:58:33,676 --> 00:58:34,978
Thank you, my buddy.

840
00:58:35,044 --> 00:58:37,580
[music continues]

841
00:58:57,700 --> 00:58:59,068
[music fades]

842
00:58:59,636 --> 00:59:00,970
Ja, I don't know.

843
00:59:01,504 --> 00:59:04,240
It sort of felt like he was telling me.

844
00:59:05,542 --> 00:59:06,442
[inhales sharply]

845
00:59:10,847 --> 00:59:11,848
[sniffling]

846
00:59:27,564 --> 00:59:28,531
[door opens]

847
00:59:34,304 --> 00:59:35,171
[beeps]

848
00:59:49,018 --> 00:59:51,154
[mystical music playing]

849
00:59:51,220 --> 00:59:53,523
[soulful vocalization]

850
00:59:58,094 --> 00:59:59,462
[insects chirping]

851
00:59:59,529 --> 01:00:01,731
[man in Venda]
When the universe was created…

852
01:00:03,132 --> 01:00:07,337
the healers and animals were connected.

853
01:00:11,007 --> 01:00:14,077
The pangolin holds a special place.

854
01:00:14,644 --> 01:00:17,780
[vocalization continues]

855
01:00:17,847 --> 01:00:20,183
As a Venda child, you must spend

856
01:00:20,249 --> 01:00:22,785
the first three months of life
inside your home.

857
01:00:25,755 --> 01:00:29,325
Before you go out,
you must be vaccinated to keep you safe.

858
01:00:29,392 --> 01:00:31,694
[thunder rumbling]

859
01:00:31,761 --> 01:00:34,330
The healer takes the scale of a pangolin

860
01:00:35,264 --> 01:00:36,799
and soaks it in water.

861
01:00:40,903 --> 01:00:43,306
We will splash that water upon you,

862
01:00:43,373 --> 01:00:44,474
like rain.

863
01:00:46,776 --> 01:00:50,980
This will instill you
with humility and calm…

864
01:00:53,416 --> 01:00:56,719
so that when the pangolin
calls the thunder,

865
01:00:56,786 --> 01:00:58,388
you will not be afraid.

866
01:00:58,454 --> 01:01:00,456
[thunder rumbling]

867
01:01:06,396 --> 01:01:08,398
[insects chirping]

868
01:01:09,265 --> 01:01:11,267
[guinea fowl squawking]

869
01:01:19,142 --> 01:01:20,977
[somber music playing]

870
01:01:21,044 --> 01:01:22,645
[Gareth] It's the last time, bud.

871
01:01:23,646 --> 01:01:25,815
Hey? It's your last time.

872
01:01:27,050 --> 01:01:30,853
Hey, last time. Last time, my boy. Hey?

873
01:01:31,754 --> 01:01:34,757
[breathes deeply]

874
01:01:36,893 --> 01:01:40,029
On the one hand,
I just want him to be free so badly.

875
01:01:41,964 --> 01:01:43,299
Okay. [sniffles]

876
01:01:43,866 --> 01:01:46,502
But then, the one thing
that I thought of was, like,

877
01:01:46,569 --> 01:01:48,304
"What am I gonna do without him?"

878
01:01:48,371 --> 01:01:49,706
[somber music continues]

879
01:01:58,614 --> 01:02:00,917
I mean, he lives with me. [sniffles]

880
01:02:00,983 --> 01:02:03,720
I sleep five meters away from him.

881
01:02:04,287 --> 01:02:05,221
[sniffles]

882
01:02:06,222 --> 01:02:11,861
I'm in his presence 24/7,
and I have been for six months, so…

883
01:02:11,928 --> 01:02:12,795
[sniffles]

884
01:02:14,464 --> 01:02:18,167
What is it gonna feel like
being away from that?

885
01:02:18,234 --> 01:02:20,236
[music continues]

886
01:02:25,241 --> 01:02:28,578
Okay, my buddy, we're here.
Hey, we're here.

887
01:02:30,046 --> 01:02:31,314
We're here, my champ.

888
01:02:33,816 --> 01:02:34,984
[music fades]

889
01:02:35,051 --> 01:02:37,019
Gonna eat lots. Hey?

890
01:02:39,088 --> 01:02:43,659
Oh, so hungry, hey?
Gonna eat lots for me, my buddy. Hey.

891
01:02:44,260 --> 01:02:45,128
[sniffles]

892
01:02:45,194 --> 01:02:49,465
My letting go of him
is gonna be incredibly gradual.

893
01:02:49,532 --> 01:02:51,534
[sniffing]

894
01:02:52,435 --> 01:02:54,170
I mean, he's a hand-reared pangolin.

895
01:02:54,237 --> 01:02:57,507
Oh, there we go. Hey? That's a good boy.

896
01:02:57,573 --> 01:03:00,643
He's spent more of his life with me

897
01:03:01,377 --> 01:03:04,113
than he has in the wild.

898
01:03:04,180 --> 01:03:06,182
[intriguing music playing]

899
01:03:08,417 --> 01:03:11,087
Is he gonna feel abandoned?

900
01:03:11,154 --> 01:03:12,255
[chuckles]

901
01:03:15,324 --> 01:03:16,993
Is it gonna stress him out to the point

902
01:03:17,059 --> 01:03:20,296
where his immune system
starts getting compromised,

903
01:03:20,363 --> 01:03:22,465
he gets covered in ticks,

904
01:03:22,532 --> 01:03:25,067
he stops feeding,
he starts running at night?

905
01:03:25,134 --> 01:03:26,636
Hey, where are you going?

906
01:03:28,204 --> 01:03:31,073
Um, there's a lot that can go wrong.

907
01:03:34,143 --> 01:03:35,778
Then there's the electric fence.

908
01:03:35,845 --> 01:03:39,081
Just this sort of unavoidable dragon.

909
01:03:39,582 --> 01:03:41,584
[music intensifies]

910
01:03:48,391 --> 01:03:50,393
[music fades]

911
01:03:58,935 --> 01:04:01,170
Hey, buddy. Is this your home?

912
01:04:01,938 --> 01:04:03,606
Is this your home, my champ?

913
01:04:10,179 --> 01:04:14,617
It's an amazing day.
He's eaten heaps, and he's still eating,

914
01:04:14,684 --> 01:04:16,352
which is just unbelievable.

915
01:04:19,956 --> 01:04:22,425
He's been incredibly relaxed.

916
01:04:22,491 --> 01:04:23,893
[Kulu sniffing]

917
01:04:23,960 --> 01:04:25,761
He hasn't run.

918
01:04:27,196 --> 01:04:30,933
He's happy.
I can… I can feel that he's happy.

919
01:04:32,935 --> 01:04:34,036
[woman] Are you happy?

920
01:04:34,904 --> 01:04:36,639
I'm ecstatic. [chuckles]

921
01:04:39,308 --> 01:04:41,611
[soulful music playing]

922
01:04:47,583 --> 01:04:49,518
[Ray] When you're working closely
with animals,

923
01:04:49,585 --> 01:04:52,288
it gets very, very difficult
to break that bond.

924
01:04:54,624 --> 01:04:56,592
And he's gonna have to go through that.

925
01:04:58,127 --> 01:05:00,897
And that's gonna be… bloody hard.

926
01:05:03,032 --> 01:05:03,900
Hey.

927
01:05:03,966 --> 01:05:05,968
[music continues]

928
01:05:12,775 --> 01:05:14,710
[Ray] And we're trying to save a species.

929
01:05:17,213 --> 01:05:19,982
A species that could go extinct
in our lifetime.

930
01:05:24,954 --> 01:05:28,824
You've had the privilege of working
with a ghost, working with a unicorn.

931
01:05:33,863 --> 01:05:36,699
And when you think about that,
it weighs heavy on you.

932
01:05:36,766 --> 01:05:38,768
[music continues]

933
01:05:46,842 --> 01:05:48,311
[Gareth] Ja. He knows.

934
01:06:02,959 --> 01:06:04,627
[music fades]

935
01:06:07,029 --> 01:06:09,031
[breathing shakily]

936
01:06:14,904 --> 01:06:16,238
[telemetry beeping]

937
01:06:17,473 --> 01:06:21,143
I'll just keep an eye on him,
for as long as he allows me.

938
01:06:21,210 --> 01:06:23,145
[animals calling]

939
01:06:23,212 --> 01:06:25,214
[telemetry beeping]

940
01:06:33,689 --> 01:06:35,691
[birds chirping]

941
01:06:48,137 --> 01:06:51,841
[Ray] We monitor these pangolins
post-release up to 12 months.

942
01:06:52,775 --> 01:06:55,478
And we need feedback
almost on a daily basis.

943
01:06:55,544 --> 01:06:57,880
[adventurous music playing]

944
01:07:06,756 --> 01:07:08,524
[Gareth] With the camera trap,

945
01:07:08,591 --> 01:07:12,028
I can give him space but still spy on him.

946
01:07:12,094 --> 01:07:13,095
[sniffing]

947
01:07:13,162 --> 01:07:14,930
[laughs]

948
01:07:16,899 --> 01:07:18,667
You can see in this burrow,

949
01:07:19,568 --> 01:07:21,737
he actually has an upstairs bedroom.

950
01:07:21,804 --> 01:07:26,409
When he goes in now, you can actually
see him go upstairs into the burrow.

951
01:07:26,475 --> 01:07:28,944
[music continues]

952
01:07:37,586 --> 01:07:39,922
We've seen, like,
quite a few different housemates.

953
01:07:40,523 --> 01:07:42,425
[adventurous music continues]

954
01:07:45,694 --> 01:07:46,529
[Gareth chuckles]

955
01:07:49,765 --> 01:07:51,333
[sniffing]

956
01:07:51,400 --> 01:07:55,137
I mean, there's just this incredible world
happening around him.

957
01:07:55,805 --> 01:07:57,807
[music continues]

958
01:08:05,815 --> 01:08:07,349
[rhinoceros huffing]

959
01:08:10,352 --> 01:08:11,754
[insects chirping]

960
01:08:22,131 --> 01:08:24,133
[music fades]

961
01:08:25,301 --> 01:08:26,502
[Ray] He's invincible.

962
01:08:27,002 --> 01:08:28,871
That's what that pangolin feels now.

963
01:08:30,673 --> 01:08:33,509
But it's tough out there,
and it's dangerous.

964
01:08:34,009 --> 01:08:36,245
And he'll learn he's not invincible.

965
01:08:36,879 --> 01:08:38,781
[thunder crashing]

966
01:08:40,149 --> 01:08:41,484
[ethereal music playing]

967
01:08:42,651 --> 01:08:46,889
[man in Venda] In Tshivenda,
a pangolin is a mystical creature.

968
01:08:48,991 --> 01:08:51,927
It is a blessing to see one.

969
01:08:54,230 --> 01:08:58,334
But if one drop
of a pangolin's blood touches the ground,

970
01:08:58,400 --> 01:09:01,437
it will bring forth natural disasters.

971
01:09:01,504 --> 01:09:03,405
[thunder crashing]

972
01:09:03,472 --> 01:09:06,542
[soulful vocalization]

973
01:09:19,021 --> 01:09:21,023
[ethereal music continues]

974
01:09:33,202 --> 01:09:37,106
[Gareth] He'd been free for eight weeks
when I had to go to Joburg for work.

975
01:09:39,141 --> 01:09:42,044
But while I was there,
I got a call from the reserve,

976
01:09:42,111 --> 01:09:44,480
saying that
he wasn't coming out of his burrow.

977
01:09:46,048 --> 01:09:49,418
All the scenarios
were running through my mind.

978
01:09:50,352 --> 01:09:52,655
I felt like
there was something wrong with him.

979
01:09:55,024 --> 01:09:56,992
My main concern was that

980
01:09:57,059 --> 01:09:59,728
something like a spotted hyena
had gotten hold of him.

981
01:09:59,795 --> 01:10:01,830
[melancholic music playing]

982
01:10:01,897 --> 01:10:04,767
It didn't occur to me
that his burrow could have collapsed

983
01:10:04,833 --> 01:10:06,402
until it was day six.

984
01:10:06,468 --> 01:10:08,470
[music continues]

985
01:10:10,105 --> 01:10:12,641
That morning,
I was just getting more and more concerned

986
01:10:12,708 --> 01:10:15,711
and, like, building up into quite a state.

987
01:10:15,778 --> 01:10:17,246
[line ringing]

988
01:10:17,313 --> 01:10:19,114
-Hey, Nicci.
-[Nicci on phone] Morning, Gareth.

989
01:10:19,181 --> 01:10:20,616
[Gareth] Something's not right.

990
01:10:20,683 --> 01:10:22,818
He hasn't actually been seen for six days.

991
01:10:24,053 --> 01:10:26,889
So, I have thought of every eventuality.

992
01:10:27,890 --> 01:10:31,026
God, I don't know what--
what to even think, um…

993
01:10:31,093 --> 01:10:33,062
[Nicci] I don't know
what to say about that

994
01:10:33,128 --> 01:10:36,131
except just get there with a spade.

995
01:10:36,699 --> 01:10:37,900
[Gareth] Yeah, okay.

996
01:10:37,967 --> 01:10:39,935
[music intensifies]

997
01:10:41,904 --> 01:10:43,906
[music fades]

998
01:10:45,908 --> 01:10:48,177
-[jackal howling]
-[lion roaring]

999
01:10:48,244 --> 01:10:50,212
[pensive music playing]

1000
01:10:53,048 --> 01:10:56,085
[telemetry beeping]

1001
01:11:03,392 --> 01:11:04,393
[Gareth exhales sharply]

1002
01:11:04,994 --> 01:11:06,562
So I get there yesterday.

1003
01:11:08,197 --> 01:11:09,999
Set up the camera trap.

1004
01:11:10,065 --> 01:11:11,767
It's all right, my boy. It's just me.

1005
01:11:12,301 --> 01:11:13,469
Start digging.

1006
01:11:13,535 --> 01:11:15,504
[pensive music continues]

1007
01:11:19,008 --> 01:11:22,244
So I'm just, like,
"Oh Jesus Christ, I'm digging up a body."

1008
01:11:22,978 --> 01:11:24,980
[melancholic music playing]

1009
01:11:26,048 --> 01:11:30,152
[shakily] I feel like I've got,
like, emotionally, just nothing left.

1010
01:11:31,587 --> 01:11:33,589
[grunting]

1011
01:11:35,324 --> 01:11:37,926
Ja, I'd been digging for like,
for two hours.

1012
01:11:37,993 --> 01:11:40,095
My back's, like, giving in.

1013
01:11:41,063 --> 01:11:42,431
[telemetry beeping]

1014
01:11:42,498 --> 01:11:44,967
Eventually, I realized I needed help,

1015
01:11:45,801 --> 01:11:47,936
so I called in the anti-poaching unit.

1016
01:11:48,437 --> 01:11:50,506
We were, like, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig.

1017
01:11:55,344 --> 01:11:57,780
It took us, like,
four and a half, five hours.

1018
01:11:58,747 --> 01:12:00,616
We dug a swimming pool.

1019
01:12:00,683 --> 01:12:02,685
[tense music playing]

1020
01:12:06,922 --> 01:12:09,358
Eventually, we get to this hollow point.

1021
01:12:18,867 --> 01:12:22,171
[voice breaking] And at that point,
I was convinced

1022
01:12:23,238 --> 01:12:25,808
the chances are that he's not alive.

1023
01:12:26,575 --> 01:12:28,110
I'm digging up his body.

1024
01:12:28,177 --> 01:12:30,179
[tense music continues]

1025
01:12:31,647 --> 01:12:32,548
[grunting]

1026
01:12:38,854 --> 01:12:41,023
[grunting] Okay, guys,
just kill the lights.

1027
01:12:41,090 --> 01:12:43,092
[tense music continues]

1028
01:12:46,829 --> 01:12:47,763
[music fades]

1029
01:12:47,830 --> 01:12:48,831
[exhales sharply]

1030
01:12:51,567 --> 01:12:53,569
[sobbing]

1031
01:12:59,475 --> 01:13:02,711
Hey, are you okay? Are you okay, my boy?

1032
01:13:02,778 --> 01:13:04,580
Hey? Are you okay?

1033
01:13:04,646 --> 01:13:05,848
And he looks at me.

1034
01:13:06,548 --> 01:13:08,517
Are you all right, my buddy? Hey?

1035
01:13:09,251 --> 01:13:12,855
I just fall over. I was like,
"Oh my God, he's alive."

1036
01:13:14,423 --> 01:13:18,327
Are you okay, my boy?
Hey? Are you all right?

1037
01:13:18,927 --> 01:13:22,631
Hey? Are you okay? Are you hurt?

1038
01:13:23,432 --> 01:13:24,433
Are you hurt?

1039
01:13:25,300 --> 01:13:27,469
Hey? Are you all right?

1040
01:13:28,003 --> 01:13:29,938
Hey? Are you okay?

1041
01:13:30,572 --> 01:13:33,142
Hey? What are you doing in here?

1042
01:13:33,842 --> 01:13:35,577
Check him out. Look at him.

1043
01:13:36,378 --> 01:13:39,648
He's, like, shell-shocked
of what's been going on

1044
01:13:39,715 --> 01:13:42,184
and the noise around him
and everything like that.

1045
01:13:42,785 --> 01:13:45,921
Okay, I think he's a little bit weak, so…

1046
01:13:46,555 --> 01:13:51,026
Hey, it's all right. I've got you, my boy.
You're okay. You're okay, my boy.

1047
01:13:51,593 --> 01:13:54,229
Hey, you're okay. You're okay, my buddy.

1048
01:13:54,830 --> 01:13:58,834
Hey, are you okay? Hey? Are you all right?

1049
01:13:59,468 --> 01:14:01,870
Are you sleeping? Hey?

1050
01:14:02,971 --> 01:14:04,339
Are you okay, my buddy?

1051
01:14:05,541 --> 01:14:08,043
Look at me. Are you okay, my boy? Hey?

1052
01:14:08,710 --> 01:14:10,846
Hey, look at you. Hey, it's me.

1053
01:14:10,913 --> 01:14:13,115
It's me, my buddy. It's me.

1054
01:14:13,682 --> 01:14:16,151
Hey? Are you all right? Hey?

1055
01:14:17,052 --> 01:14:19,822
You're okay, my boy.
What are you doing to me?

1056
01:14:19,888 --> 01:14:22,124
Hey, come on. Come on.

1057
01:14:22,191 --> 01:14:26,261
Here you go, let's go up.
Come here. Hey, it's all right, come here.

1058
01:14:27,196 --> 01:14:28,630
Are you gonna walk for me?

1059
01:14:29,364 --> 01:14:30,499
Hey? Can you walk?

1060
01:14:30,999 --> 01:14:33,368
I wanna see, like, okay, is he weak?

1061
01:14:36,238 --> 01:14:38,006
And he slowly starts walking.

1062
01:14:41,743 --> 01:14:42,778
[sniffing]

1063
01:14:42,845 --> 01:14:46,915
He finds a nest of ants,
and he just climbs in.

1064
01:14:48,484 --> 01:14:51,086
Just starts to chow like crazy.

1065
01:14:51,153 --> 01:14:53,155
[sniffing intently]

1066
01:14:55,023 --> 01:14:57,593
The little dude was starving.

1067
01:15:01,029 --> 01:15:02,731
What an ordeal.

1068
01:15:02,798 --> 01:15:05,067
[continues sniffing]

1069
01:15:23,118 --> 01:15:27,422
It never occurred to me
that him being trapped in a burrow

1070
01:15:27,489 --> 01:15:29,925
would be something
I would have to worry about.

1071
01:15:31,159 --> 01:15:33,161
[birds calling]

1072
01:15:45,040 --> 01:15:47,042
[vehicle approaching]

1073
01:15:51,046 --> 01:15:52,080
[rhinoceros bellows]

1074
01:15:52,614 --> 01:15:55,183
[Gareth] All right, big girl. Just relax.

1075
01:15:56,151 --> 01:15:57,853
[Dr. Caswell] Have you seen
any interactions

1076
01:15:57,920 --> 01:15:59,821
between him and some of the big mammals?

1077
01:15:59,888 --> 01:16:03,759
[Gareth] So, the interesting thing
is he'll actually follow them around.

1078
01:16:05,794 --> 01:16:08,196
-Because he'll roll in their dung.
-Oh yes.

1079
01:16:08,263 --> 01:16:10,132
And he'll cover himself.

1080
01:16:17,406 --> 01:16:21,543
If you're a lion,
and you're smelling rhino shit,

1081
01:16:21,610 --> 01:16:24,346
you don't think that it's something
that you're gonna hunt.

1082
01:16:24,413 --> 01:16:27,649
[Dr. Caswell] Ja.
There's so much mimicking in most animals.

1083
01:16:46,301 --> 01:16:47,369
Hey, my buddy.

1084
01:16:48,637 --> 01:16:50,739
Are we gonna do this,
and I'll leave you alone?

1085
01:16:52,374 --> 01:16:54,910
-Come on. Come. Come.
-[sniffing]

1086
01:16:55,811 --> 01:16:57,646
Come. Come.

1087
01:16:58,213 --> 01:16:59,815
[laughs]

1088
01:17:00,449 --> 01:17:04,753
Come here. Come on. Let's be quick.
Come on. We'll be quick. Hello.

1089
01:17:05,387 --> 01:17:09,591
Come on. I know you're a free pangolin.
You don't wanna be handled. Hey?

1090
01:17:11,226 --> 01:17:13,195
Pull it up this way. There we go.

1091
01:17:17,699 --> 01:17:20,068
Hold still. There we go.

1092
01:17:23,438 --> 01:17:26,341
Hey. You're very calm in there. Hey?

1093
01:17:27,275 --> 01:17:28,410
Have you been good?

1094
01:17:29,177 --> 01:17:32,414
Have you been a good boy?
How's this tummy? That's good.

1095
01:17:33,348 --> 01:17:34,316
Huh?

1096
01:17:37,753 --> 01:17:39,655
Hah. Completely unfazed.

1097
01:17:46,228 --> 01:17:48,330
You see how slowly he's moving, eh?

1098
01:17:48,397 --> 01:17:49,231
Not that…

1099
01:17:49,297 --> 01:17:50,932
[mimicking frantic walk]

1100
01:17:58,674 --> 01:17:59,641
Ja.

1101
01:17:59,708 --> 01:18:02,477
Looks like
he's heading west into the valley.

1102
01:18:04,379 --> 01:18:06,381
[birds calling]

1103
01:18:11,653 --> 01:18:13,655
[thunder rumbling]

1104
01:18:19,761 --> 01:18:22,731
[soulful singing]

1105
01:18:25,067 --> 01:18:26,635
[Dr. Caswell] As a human being,

1106
01:18:26,702 --> 01:18:29,137
it's your role
to protect the animals around you.

1107
01:18:32,474 --> 01:18:36,945
As scientists,
we're trying to now link the science

1108
01:18:37,479 --> 01:18:39,081
and what people understood.

1109
01:18:40,115 --> 01:18:41,349
[sniffing]

1110
01:18:41,416 --> 01:18:43,018
You've got this magical animal

1111
01:18:44,720 --> 01:18:46,021
that can make it rain.

1112
01:18:46,088 --> 01:18:47,689
[thunder rumbling]

1113
01:18:47,756 --> 01:18:49,191
Everyone wants the rain.

1114
01:18:51,693 --> 01:18:53,628
The myth that protects,

1115
01:18:53,695 --> 01:18:57,899
that has let humans
and the environment live in harmony.

1116
01:18:58,900 --> 01:19:02,304
[soulful singing continues]

1117
01:19:04,005 --> 01:19:06,007
[wind whooshing]

1118
01:19:07,309 --> 01:19:10,145
Those stories,
they were passed through generations,

1119
01:19:10,212 --> 01:19:14,416
but we're raising a group of people now
that need to be told things as they are.

1120
01:19:15,884 --> 01:19:19,087
They are not interested in
what people used to believe.

1121
01:19:20,355 --> 01:19:22,157
[guitar music playing]

1122
01:19:22,224 --> 01:19:25,327
Whether science combined
with the traditional ways of doing things,

1123
01:19:26,027 --> 01:19:27,262
or science comes alone,

1124
01:19:27,763 --> 01:19:29,364
at the center of everything

1125
01:19:29,431 --> 01:19:32,934
is that we need
to protect the environment.

1126
01:19:33,001 --> 01:19:35,003
[thunder rumbling]

1127
01:19:37,906 --> 01:19:42,344
What has our kind done to the Kulu kind?

1128
01:19:44,813 --> 01:19:47,616
[soulful song playing]

1129
01:19:52,120 --> 01:19:53,054
[exhales sharply]

1130
01:19:54,823 --> 01:19:58,760
[Nicci] I think that if
such a special creature like a pangolin

1131
01:19:58,827 --> 01:19:59,928
is lost,

1132
01:20:01,096 --> 01:20:04,833
it symbolizes the way we treat everything.

1133
01:20:05,801 --> 01:20:07,369
[soulful singing continues]

1134
01:20:07,435 --> 01:20:09,437
[wind whooshing]

1135
01:20:17,179 --> 01:20:19,681
[thunder rumbling]

1136
01:20:24,920 --> 01:20:27,088
[low rumbling]

1137
01:20:31,693 --> 01:20:32,794
[thunder crashing]

1138
01:20:32,861 --> 01:20:35,230
[rhythmic clapping]

1139
01:20:37,232 --> 01:20:39,201
[singing becomes spirited]

1140
01:20:40,802 --> 01:20:42,237
[thunder rumbling]

1141
01:20:42,304 --> 01:20:44,239
[spirited singing continues]

1142
01:21:10,432 --> 01:21:12,000
[song ends]

1143
01:21:12,067 --> 01:21:14,069
[animals calling]

1144
01:21:36,791 --> 01:21:38,793
[inspirational music playing]

1145
01:21:41,830 --> 01:21:43,732
It has been a hell of a thing,

1146
01:21:44,366 --> 01:21:46,635
like a long, long journey.

1147
01:21:46,701 --> 01:21:47,836
[chuckles]

1148
01:21:55,277 --> 01:21:57,712
He's just a completely different animal.

1149
01:22:00,415 --> 01:22:02,884
He's so relaxed. [laughs]

1150
01:22:05,720 --> 01:22:08,690
It just feels like he can do things

1151
01:22:08,757 --> 01:22:11,259
when he wants to, on his terms,

1152
01:22:11,326 --> 01:22:13,361
without any sort of pressure.

1153
01:22:18,667 --> 01:22:20,535
He's carried on gaining weight.

1154
01:22:20,602 --> 01:22:22,604
[music continues]

1155
01:22:28,910 --> 01:22:31,880
He's now mapped out this entire area.

1156
01:22:34,783 --> 01:22:40,055
And he's moved
into this dense, thick riverine territory.

1157
01:22:43,959 --> 01:22:48,964
It's like he has found
the wildest pocket of wilderness,

1158
01:22:49,030 --> 01:22:51,333
and that's where he's staying.

1159
01:22:51,399 --> 01:22:53,401
[inspirational music continues]

1160
01:22:54,502 --> 01:22:56,504
[soulful vocalization]

1161
01:23:04,679 --> 01:23:06,982
He might be looking for a female.

1162
01:23:08,016 --> 01:23:10,652
I mean, the fact that
he's now going around

1163
01:23:10,719 --> 01:23:13,755
and just scent-marking everything

1164
01:23:13,822 --> 01:23:16,491
is a pretty good indication
that he's ready.

1165
01:23:19,394 --> 01:23:22,831
And we know
there are other pangolins in the area.

1166
01:23:29,771 --> 01:23:32,807
He's now been in the wild

1167
01:23:32,874 --> 01:23:35,577
for longer than he's been in captivity.

1168
01:23:36,444 --> 01:23:40,181
It almost seems
like a debt was paid at that point.

1169
01:23:40,248 --> 01:23:42,384
[music continues]

1170
01:23:42,450 --> 01:23:44,452
[sniffing]

1171
01:23:48,023 --> 01:23:51,793
The last two times
that I've gone out to go check on him,

1172
01:23:51,860 --> 01:23:53,661
he's tried to hide from me.

1173
01:23:56,698 --> 01:23:58,233
By lying flat,

1174
01:23:58,299 --> 01:24:01,836
he's trying to blend in
with his surroundings.

1175
01:24:12,480 --> 01:24:17,085
That feels like the last step
in his rewilding process.

1176
01:24:17,152 --> 01:24:19,387
[music continues]

1177
01:24:29,264 --> 01:24:32,333
I mean, there's got to be a point
where you let go.

1178
01:24:37,038 --> 01:24:39,040
[inspirational music continues]

1179
01:24:40,909 --> 01:24:42,911
[insects chirping]

1180
01:24:52,454 --> 01:24:55,890
In a way, we maybe should never
have seen him in the first place.

1181
01:24:56,724 --> 01:24:59,327
I mean, if he's just never seen again,

1182
01:24:59,961 --> 01:25:03,731
that means he's out there doing his thing.

1183
01:25:03,798 --> 01:25:05,767
[inspirational music continues]

1184
01:25:05,834 --> 01:25:07,836
[soulful vocalization continues]

1185
01:25:47,208 --> 01:25:49,210
[music continues]

1186
01:26:25,413 --> 01:26:27,415
[soulful vocalization continues]

1187
01:26:33,855 --> 01:26:37,725
[ululating]

1188
01:26:37,792 --> 01:26:39,661
[music fades]

1189
01:26:39,727 --> 01:26:41,729
[percussive music playing]

1190
01:27:04,652 --> 01:27:06,654
[soulful vocalization]

1191
01:28:35,843 --> 01:28:37,478
[music ends]