TV and radio
Join Gordon Buchanan as he’s welcomed into the mighty bosom of a Kenyan elephant clan.
Elephant Family & Me
Elephant Family & Me TV BBC Two Due to air around Christmas. See RT for details
To the casual observer, Gordon Buchanan might seem to have a deathwish. Over four
Family& Me series, the Scottish cameraman-presenter has embedded himself with black bears, polar bears, wolves and gorillas. And his latest two-parter sees him stroll into a herd of elephants in Kenya.
Yet Gordon is no thrill-seeker. Rather, he seeks to show how living with such animals can help us understand their behaviour, and how to protect them – and us. “Across the series we’ve looked at animals demonised by Hollywood,” says series producer Ted Oakes. “Yet these animals rarely kill humans. More people are killed by vending machines falling over.” Elephants, though, are a different proposition, as Ted admits: “They are among Africa’s most dangerous animals – they kill far more people than large predators.” So why did Gordon want to walk among them?
“Every elephant film I’ve ever seen is shot from vehicles,” says Ted. “But the Africans who’ve lived with elephants for tens of thousands of years weren’t in vehicles. So we wanted to try to understand the points of view of both the elephants and the people who live among them. On foot, you get a completely different view of their world. You experience every sound – hear every twig snap, every bird tweet.”
Walking with wild elephants would normally be suicidal, but these were no ordinary elephants. “It was only possible because of the history of these elephants, and the work of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust,” says Ted. “The trust rehabilitates orphaned eles and releases them into Tsavo East National Park, where they have been rewilded to form a 53-strong herd.” The series follows a first-time mother, Wendi, and her daughter, sevenmonth-old Wiva, who leads her mother and surrogate aunts a merry dance. As Gordon wins the herd’s trust, we’re rewarded with insights into their emotional family dynamics and some hope for the future of elephants. “They say it takes a village to raise a child,” laughs Ted. “Well, watching Wiva, it certainly takes a herd to raise a baby elephant!”
WALKING WITH WILD ELEPHANTS WOULD BE SUICIDAL — BUT THESE WERE NO ORDINARY ELES”