Animal Bounty Hunters

Animal Bounty Hunters
Game Traders

Season 1|Episode 5

Animal Bounty Hunters

Take a look at the men who capture Africa’s most dangerous animals. They come face to face with razor sharp horns, stampeding herds, and animals determined to fight back. It is a job where every day could be your last.

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(dramatic music)(helicopter blades whir)

Narrator:

Extreme danger.

Speaker:

If they come through here, they're gonna kill you, I promise you.

Narrator:

Huge risk.

Jacques:

Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy, watch out!

Narrator:

And intense pressure. (aircraft engine roars) (chainsaw)

Narrator:

Ordinary men.

Man:

Come on!

Narrator:

Extraordinary jobs.

Man:

Oh man! (speaking foreign language)

Narrator:

This week, the men who capture Africa's most dangerous animals.

Pilot Mark:

You can be cheeky as you like, (laughs) but you're going to listen to me.

Narrator:

They come face-to-face with razor sharp horns, stampeding herds.

Speaker:

Be careful.

Narrator:

And animals determined to fight back.

Speaker:

Whoa, whoa, whoa! He'll kill you. He'll take your arms and legs off you, right off.

Narrator:

It's a job where every day could be your last.

Speaker:

Just watch out, hey? Fuck! They just want to kill someone, please. When things go wrong, that's when the blood flows. (gentle music) (dramatic music)

Narrator:

Limpopo Province, South Africa, home to some of the world's most dangerous animals. (wild animals roar) Here in the bush, big game is big business. The land is divided into hundreds of game parks and wild animals are traded like commodities. (car engine roars) (Jacques speaking in foreign language) Jacques Ells is one of the traders. (Jacques speaking in foreign language)

Speaker:

We could move up to 7500 animals a year. (Jacques speaking in foreign language) You know, South Africa, it's a game business, it's like cattle in Australia, it's a wildlife cowboy business, I can call it. You know, you're just buying animals today, selling them tomorrow for a profit.

Narrator:

Jacques and his team of 35 wildlife wranglers are about the start their latest job. This 5000-acre game reserve is being sold and Jacques has got seven days to capture as many of the animals as he can. He'll buy those he captures and sell them on for profit. It's a lucrative but dangerous business.

Speaker:

You catch game, you are definitely gonna see blood, that I can guarantee. As a trainer, I'll decide to catch game, and think you're never gonna get hurt, (laughing) I've got some news for you. (gentle music) Mark Towt is Jacques's business partner. For the past eight years, he's flown the helicopter that herds the animals, despite having just one leg. He lost the other in a motorbike accident when he was 19.

Speaker:

There's the socket, and there's the joint. So walking, and a hop and a skip, I can do, but running, I can't. (laughs) It's pretty extreme flying, what we do. Twisting, turning, doing things that you shouldn't really be doing in a helicopter, and that's when you can make mistakes. I think five times I've been down, which is enough for one lifetime. (laughing) (dramatic music) (helicopter blades whir)

Narrator:

Game pilots have a risky job. Last year, three were killed in crashes. Mark's highly skilled role is to be an aerial sheepdog, flying low over the bush to find the animals, and then driving them into this giant funnel-shaped canvas enclosure, called a boma.

Speaker:

You'll see the boma on that side and on this side. The side walls get more narrow and narrow. It tapers down basically, and that's what the animals see as they come forward, 'cause they see the bush in front and they see opening, they see places to escape.

Narrator:

At the narrowest end of the boma is a section known as the crush, which leads to the loading trucks. That's where the animals end up. Over the next seven days, they hope to capture more than 700 wild animals in this boma. (serene music) They're beginning the operation with one of the smartest and most dangerous animals of all, the buffalo.

Interviewer:

So if you had to say what character a buffalo has, what would, uh?

Speaker:

It'll be like a pissed-off drunk in a bar, looking for a fight all the time, most probably. Yeah, I think that'll be... A pissed-off big bloke. Yeah, I think that's what they're like. They don't like people, firstly, they don't like to be handled, secondly, and then, thirdly, it's a wild animal, it's a wild animal, and it's not called the black death for nothing.

Narrator:

To handle the black death, Jacques is working with specialist wildlife vet, Wilhelm Shack.

Speaker:

This is my darting equipment. These are my darts, the needles. These preparations need to be done properly because the drug that we use is extremely dangerous and extremely potent. 1000 times more potent than morphine itself and in minute volumes they can kill a person or an animal. (dramatic music)

Narrator:

The plan is for Wilhelm to sedate the largest and most dangerous of the buffaloes, the dominant bull. (helicopter blades whir) A drugged bull is usually more submissive and easier to lead into the boma. The other buffalo should then follow. (gentle music) Before the buffalo enter the boma, Jacques is making sure that everyone is in position on the outside. (Jacques speaking in foreign language)

Jacques:

With catching buffalo, there's so many things that can go wrong and often do, often, often do.

Narrator:

The ground team are the guys on the frontline who face the animals first. Every year, half a dozen of them are injured, some seriously. (dramatic music) There are 10 buffalo to be captured, but, first, Mark has to find them.

Speaker:

They were just in here somewhere. This is near where the buffalo are. I think the whole herd will be able to come now. There's a big bull. You can be cheeky as you like, (laughs) but you're going to listen to me.

Narrator:

Mark is using a whistle, to alert the ground team that the herd are approaching. (dramatic music)(shrill whistling)

Mark:

That's him at the back, big black ass. Okay let's put a dart in. (helicopter blades whir)(dramatic music)

Narrator:

With the lead buffalo darted, the rest of the herd are following him into the boma, but only so far.

Jacques:

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! (buffalo grunts) If you have to catch a bunch of buffalo, there's a very good chance someone is going to get hurt. (buffalo grunts) They just want to kill someone, please. That'll make their day.

Narrator:

The buffalo herd are refusing to budge. Mark has landed and, with the rest of the ground team, is trying to drive the buffalo forward.

Speaker:

We're just trying to get them out of this corner and get them forward. Come on! (dramatic music)

Narrator:

The bull has broken out. Despite the dangers.

Jacques:

Fuck! He'll now have to be recaptured by hand. (buffalo grunts)Watch it, watch it! (gentle music)

Narrator:

Game capture in South Africa is a lucrative business. Specialist wranglers buy all the animals they can catch and sell them on for profit. This wildlife reserve is being closed down. Jacques Ells and his team have just seven days to clear out its animals. It's day one and the team has already got a problem. A highly dangerous buffalo bull has broken loose. It's half-sedated, but no one can be certain how safe it is to approach him.

Speaker:

He's not gonna just tap you around a bit. He'll kill you. He'll take your arms and legs off you, right off. He'll run around with pieces of you. (ground team yell and whistle)

Narrator:

The ground team will have to tackle him by hand. The hope is that the sedation will stop him from seriously injuring anyone.

Mark:

Don't invite him in the fucking helicopter! (ground team whistling)

Narrator:

Pilot Mark is concerned that the bull might charge his half million dollar helicopter.

Speaker:

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa! (dramatic music) (ground team speaking foreign language)

Narrator:

The bull is blindfolded to disorientate him.

Speaker:

Turn around, we'll pull it to the vehicle. Come, pull here! You look at the color of his coat, he's pitch black, and that indicates that he's fierce, he's aggressive, he's fertile. I'll have to wake him up now, so he can get up and start breathing better, and then I need to give a long-acting sedative for him to calm down during transport, so that he doesn't break down our vehicles. He's very strong. (ground team speaking foreign language)

Narrator:

Day one has ended without injury. These 10 buffalo have been bought for 80,000 pounds and now will be sold on for a profit of around 2,000 pounds each. The first of the 700 wild animals in this reserve have been successfully loaded. (gentle guitar music)

Speaker:

The truck's going to go and offload. Let's go and have whisky. It's time for lots of whisky. (gentle music)

Narrator:

Capturing game is much more than a day job. For eight months of the year, the entire team live under the stars in the bush, far from their homes and families. (gentle guitar music) Every year, the specialist wranglers travel thousands of miles, from job to job, with their bosses Mark and Jacques. The two men have spent the last decade capturing game and only get home to see their girlfriends a few days in each month. Game capture is their life.

Speaker:

If I had to get up every morning and go to an office, you know...

Mark:

That's soul-destroying, that's soul destroying.

Speaker:

I take my hat off to those people, because they must be wonderful people,

Mark:

You know, there's routine.

Speaker:

'Cause I'd go mad.

Speaker:

It takes a different kind of person to be able to do that.

Speaker:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker:

To wake up every morning.

Speaker:

No, it's incredible.

Speaker:

To drive the same route, or commute the same route.

Speaker:

If I had to go to the city, you know, sometimes someone gets married where you're gonna have to go spend a night in the city.

Speaker:

He goes for two days.

Speaker:

Yes, that's enough, eh?

Speaker:

I can make three, ya.

Speaker:

You're a better person. (Mark laughs) You're a better person. (laughs) (upbeat music)

Narrator:

Day two, and they're taking on antelope. There are more than 400 to be caught and Mark's got to fly even lower to keep the herds together. On the ground, the team are hiding inside the boma, behind giant curtains. (upbeat music) So when the antelopes are inside the boma, they can close off the funnel and cut off their escape route. (helicopter blades whir) But that's only half the job.

Narrator:

Half of the antelope are bulls with deadly sharp horns. Pipes need to be fitted to stop them from stabbing the cows or the wranglers. It's so important to work in the shortest time as possible. If you grab a ram, in 20 seconds, the guys will know, they have to be finished or there's going to be trouble. (antelope moos)

Narrator:

Once inside the trucks, Jacques and Wilhelm, the vet, have to sedate and separate the bigger rams. (helicopter blades whir) Minutes later, the next herd is through. This time it's a group of bigger antelope known as kudu. But there's a problem with one of the cows.

Speaker:

There's extremely bad damage to the leg. I think the animal put its foot down wrong and on a stone or something, or on branches, so it now broke its back hind leg, and I see a lot of damage done to the tissues, arteries, nerves. But the next ones are coming. Please hide behind the curtain there.

Interviewer:

So you don't want to see to this animal?

Speaker:

No we'll see just now, we'll attend to it just right now. But the next lot is coming. (helicopter blades whir)

Speaker:

They're on their way! (speaking foreign language) Wild animals are impossible really to fix. Firstly, because of her weight. Remember, she jumps on her hind legs, and it's not a tame animal, it's not a kid that you can say, please don't use your hind legs, you know, please just be calm with it. As soon as she gets up, as she wakes up from the anesthetic, she'll use that leg, she'll break the plaster. The best thing for her is just to take it out of the misery. (ground team speaking foreign language)

Narrator:

Even though the kudu has had to be put down, it won't go to waste. This meat is a delicacy and will feed the entire team for the next three days. (Jacque speaking foreign language) Halfway through day two, and Jacques is pleased with the way things are going.

Jacques:

We're doing better than expected, I'm telling you, definitely better than expected.

Mark:

Ya, I am thinking the same.

Speaker:

It'll be nice if we can fill that truck in the afternoon, 'cause we know there's a group of wildebeest here. We can get some more impala in and fill that truck, break down and move to the next location. It's gonna be wonderful. (gentle guitar music)

Narrator:

The captured antelope are on their way to new home at a nearby national park. Wildlife is often traded between game parks to replace stocks, but they face an uncertain future at the hands of hunters or other wild animals. At this park, big cats are one of the star attractions, and they're running short of prey.

Speaker:

As hard as it sounds, you know, we've brought lunch for lions. But we hope that a fairly big percentage of these animals, that have been introduced here, will, in the end, survive, but there's a huge population of predators, like lions and cheetah, wild dogs and so forth, so there's a hard learning curve ahead of them. But that's balance, that's nature, that's what it's all about. (mellow music) (engine starts)

Narrator:

Back at the game reserve, there's no time to waste. The more animals they catch, the more money they will make. Mark's on the hunt for wildebeest, an animal that Jacques has become particularly wary of.

Speaker:

I had a very near death experience with a wildebeest. We chased all the herd up in the truck and then the owner said to me, you know, he doesn't want that calf. So I jumped down here and I grabbed the calf by the leg and I started pulling and, you know, he made that (mimics calf), that calf noise, and animals hate that distress noise. And as I pulled him, the bull came down, and I knew I was in shit, 'cause I couldn't run, he was gonna catch me. I didn't want to go to the side, so I jumped and as I jumped he gored me, and he got me in the leg, here. The horn went in here and got hold of the artery and pulled it out. So I stuck my hand in there as far as I could. Luckily, I could get hold of something that I blocked the blood, most of the blood, 'cause the blood was pouring into my shoes here, and I could feel the blood squirt here, on my arm. If you lose blood so quickly you get blind, you can't see. So I said to Mark, "Listen, I'm not gonna make it." Mark said, "Bullshit," chucked me in the helicopter, we flew off. I was, most of the journey, I was blind, I couldn't see, and then as we got to the hospital I could get a little bit of my sight back, but by that time I've lost about five or six pints of blood. Almost lost my leg, it was seven hours without blood. (helicopter blades whir)

Narrator:

It's time for Jacques to face his fears. Mark's found a large herd of wildebeest. (dramatic music) (wildebeest grunt) Most of the herd goes straight through to the loading trucks, but there is one group still inside the neck of the boma.

Jacques:

Come on, come on, come on, come on! (exhales) (wildebeest growls)

Interviewer:

These guys still make you a little nervous?

Jacques:

Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, I see you.

Narrator:

Jacques is arming himself with a steel shield. This is the only animal that he uses it with.

Speaker:

Come on, come on, come on! Come on, come on, you! Before the accident I was very cheeky and I'd run and grab one by the tail. Turns around, and I'm up a tree. I don't do that any more. Come on! 'Cause I know their speed. Come on, you think you're clever, eh? (wildebeest grunt) I knew something was gonna happen sometime, and, you know, we catch game, and there's a very good chance it's gonna happen again. Excellent chance it's gonna happen again. I just try and not take too many chances now. But the show must go on. (wildebeest grunts) (upbeat music)

Narrator:

Day three and Mark and Jacques are on their way to a nearby national park. They've been asked to capture a fully grown adult rhino, worth more than 25,000 pounds.

Speaker:

Yeah, under those trees, two there, three there, there's another one.Okay, well, let's get them going.

Narrator:

Although it's going to delay their main job, this contract is so lucrative, they can't afford to turn it down. (team speaking foreign language) The guy's looking for nice breeding animals, so we're gonna look for a nice place, a not too old bull. We're gonna, we'll dart from the helicopter, and then work on the ground. They're dangerous animals, you know, they weigh up to three tons, and we could get dragged around a bit, chased around a bit.

Narrator:

Today's capture involves a different vet, Pier Beste, and it's his job to immobilize the rhino.

Speaker:

What I'm using to immobilize these animals is highly potent, highly dangerous. This would be enough to kill all people in this village. I don't use gloves, 'cause you should actually use gloves, but I'm clumsy as it is, with gloves I'm more clumsy. Just mix it properly. The darts I use, inside the dart we've got a plunger, little white plunger, with a charge stuck in the back, so, as soon as it hits the animal, this little charge goes off and injects the drug. (drumming music)

Narrator:

Jacques takes the ground team into position, while Pier and Mark head off to look for rhino. An adult rhino is heavier and more powerful than a family car. If it decides to charge, it can easily outrun a human.

Mark:

Okay, let's have a look at him. I think he's the (murmurs). Jacques, do you read me?

Speaker:

Yes, Mark, I read you.

Speaker:

Well, we've found a rhino here. Just keep coming along the road, I just going and I'll pick him up just here, I'll park here. Okay. We start moving them down and then dart. No, we got lots of room here. We can dart here, hey? Yeah, okay, let's identify the one we wanna do. I think it's the one on the left. Let's just confirm. We'll see them together now, ya, the left one, ya. Let's go a bit closer. (drumming music) (helicopter blades whir) Looked good. Okay, dart's in.

Jacques:

Okay, we're on our way, Mark.

Narrator:

Despite being given enough sedation to knock out a small village, the rhino doesn't seem to be slowing down.

Mark:

You're not showing much effect, hey? (murmuring over radio)

Jacques:

Oh, let me (murmurs) them out.

Mark:

(murmurs) everything first time.

Speaker:

It looks like that dart didn't go off. It might have got a milligram in. Effectively, he needs five milligrams to go down, and I don't think he's got the full dose, so we're just gonna top him up. Give him another dose. (dramatic music)(helicopter blades whir)

Mark:

Dart in.

Narrator:

The second dart is in, and at last the rhino is slowing down. Pier now has to approach the rhino on foot, to give him an antidote that will reduce the effects of the sedation. Without it, the rhino could suffer heart failure within minutes. Because of the problem with his darts, Pier has no idea just how drugged this animal is.

Speaker:

I'm just gonna blindfold him. Watch out he doesn't see us, hey.

Speaker:

When things go wrong, that's when the blood flows. When your drug's not injected properly into the animal, and it's half-sedated, and it stands, and you walk up to it, and you think, "Oh, this thing's fast asleep," and, all of a sudden, it comes. (snapping fingers) Be careful. Just try and turn him a bit more. Ah, shit! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Narrator:

For the past 10 years, Jacques Ells has been trading wild animals in South Africa. He buys all the wildlife he captures and sells it on to new owners for a profit.

Speaker:

Be careful!

Narrator:

Today, he's hit a problem. (rhino growls) A two and a half ton rhino is on the run, despite being twice sedated from the air. Jacques and his capture team have had difficulties with their immobilizing darts, and now no one is sure just how drugged this rhino is. (ground team speaking foreign language) The team has no other option but to try to stop him by hand. (rhino grunts) (ground team speaking foreign language)

Speaker:

Obviously, there's this huge animal with a horn on top of it and mostly aggressive, and it's very strong. It's a dangerous business.

Narrator:

The ropes are not stopping the rhino. They have to get a blindfold on him, keep clear of his two foot horn, (rhino huffs)and disorientate him, so that they can bring him to the ground. (ground team whistling) (rhino huffs)

Speaker:

That's a nice bull, it's a nice specimen. The owner, client is happy, we're happy.

Interviewer:

What is the skin, how thick is the skin?

Speaker:

It's very much elephant-like. It's about an inch thick. You come and see here, when they take the needle out. You see that?

Narrator:

The rhino's heart is racing and Pier must give him the antidote immediately, to reduce the effects of the sedation and get him back on his feet. But it's a delicate balance. Too much antidote and the rhino may charge.

Speaker:

I'm just gonna give him a little bit of antidote. A sniff, a sniff. What I wanna do now is just get him to walk properly on his own, 'cause we can't handle him. I mean, this thing weighs two and a half tons. There's no way we're gonna grab him by the horn and walk him all the way.

Jacques:

Okay, got him. Okay, okay. (whistling) Okay, okay.

Interviewer:

Is it often you find yourself pushing a rhino's ass up a hill?

Speaker:

Oh, well, it's the engine, hey, I'm the engine. (mellow music)

Narrator:

This rhino bull is worth more than 25,000 pounds, netting Jacques a healthy profit of over six grand.

Speaker:

Okay guys, went well. No humans dead, no animals dead, we won. (upbeat music)

Narrator:

Back to the main job of clearing out a 5000-acre game reserve of its wildlife in seven days. The team is halfway through the operation, but it seems that the animals have now got wise to what's happening. Herding them into the capture enclosure, known as a boma, has become almost impossible, (shrill whistling) and pilot Mark is getting increasingly frustrated.

Speaker:

The heat of the moment gets you. That's probably my biggest fault is taking it personally, if I don't get animals in. (shouting) Let's go to those fucking bulls there, in front, opposite fucking (murmurs). (upbeat music)

Narrator:

There's no option but to build a new boma on the other side of the reserve. (helicopter blades whir)

Narrator:

Work on the new boma is going slowly and day four has become a write-off. Losing time means losing money, and animals can only be captured in South Africa during the cooler months of the year.

Speaker:

You lose a day, we lose a lot of money. We've only got, it's eight months for your year's earnings, so you got four months that you've got no income in that four months, so losing a day is hard, it's not a good thing. But we'll sort it out, in these next two days.

Narrator:

Jacques is not the only one who's worried. Johann, the owner of the farm, has a deadline to sell the place, and wants the animals captured and paid for as soon as possible.

Speaker:

Oh yes, it's right there. You see there, where it, where the hill drops, and there's a lot of game there and a lot of game in this area here, against this little mountain. There's a lot of animals on this farm and I don't think we're done, and I can't see them finishing it in another week. I mean, on 2000 hectares, you do need time, and we haven't exactly got time on our side. (mellow music)

Narrator:

50 miles away, Wilhelm, the vet, is on the road, taking a captured rhino to a private game park. With such a valuable passenger, his specialist skills are needed to keep a close watch on the rhino's condition.

Speaker:

He's been treated with two kinds of drugs now, for the trip, one long-acting tranquilizer, which will last for four days, and then a short-acting one to really let his head hang, you know, while we travel. I wouldn't like him to get injured or to break my vehicle, so I have to heavily sedate him, so that even the head hangs down almost on the floor, you know, but he should be standing all the time, he should be standing on all four legs, but with the head down.

Narrator:

After two hours on the road, Wilhelm's pulling into a service station to check up on his rhino. (rhino growls)

Speaker:

No, he's still fairly okay. He's just placing weight on different legs and that's why there's slight rocking of the trailer.

Narrator:

The rhino is a rare sight for the service station.

Speaker:

How is dangerous, the...?

Speaker:

Very, very, very, very dangerous. It will kill you. It will push its horn through your stomach and it'll come out at the back here. Yeah, if you're not fast enough to run away.

Speaker:

But when you sell it, how much can cost?

Wilhelm:

Oh, 300,000 Rand, 400,000 Rand.

Speaker:

Woo!400,000?

Wilhelm:

For the animal, for the rhino, yeah.

Speaker:

Per one?

Wilhelm:

Yeah, per one animal.

Speaker:

It's too expensive, huh?

Wilhelm:

Yeah.

Narrator:

The rhino, worth more than 25,000 pounds, is going to be playing stud to two female rhino cows at his new home. Wilhelm has the task of leading him into the field, armed only with a plastic pole. (rhino huffs)

Speaker:

He walks around in little circles like that, just shows me that he's still very depressed from the drugs, you know, so there's no danger of... He might react a little bit more fiercely when he bumps into something, like a cow. Come! (rhino huffs) (mellow music)(helicopter blades whir)

Narrator:

With only a few days left to clear the reserve, the new boma is finally ready. (shrill whistling)Mark's getting results. In just two hours, they capture nearly 100 animals.

Speaker:

We filled well. We filled our two big trucks quickly. That's the important thing, and, if everything goes well, we're gonna fill them again, three o'clock this afternoon.

Narrator:

By the end of day five, Jacques's taken off 90% of the wildlife he wanted to catch. He's buying the animals off the reserve owners, Johann and Rita. For them it's an emotional time seeing their animals depart.

Speaker:

We've been waiting for this for quite a while, but, now that it's here, it's kind of final. It's kind of, especially when we see the animals go, the realization sets in, so. They were all born here. (sniffs) (tearfully) We just hope they're well looked after. (mellow music)

Narrator:

There's one last species the team have yet to tackle, the giraffe. Before they can start, they have to raise the height of the boma, and bring in specially adapted trucks to load them.

Speaker:

You know, giraffe, your big problem is their front feet, 'cause you're always working with them while they're looking at you, and then they start slapping their front feet at you, and that's when it becomes dangerous. The back feet is dangerous for those people pulling the curtain, 'cause, remember, if you're standing the curtain, here, that giraffe passes right by you, and if you make sudden movement, he's gonna kick at the movement, and he'll break you, he'll break you in half.

Narrator:

Mark's taken to the air, to look for giraffe. They're easy to find, but tricky to herd. (dramatic music)

Mark:

Come on, come on you little bugger.

Jacques:

Come! (helicopter blades whir)

Narrator:

Mark's got the giraffes into the entrance of the boma. (dramatic music) (shrill whistling) (helicopter blades whir) (Jacques speaking foreign language)

Narrator:

It's now for Jacques to get them forward into the crush.

Jacques:

Okay. (exhales) Come guys, come. If you work too fast, and try to push them, you know, too much, they're gonna turn, and stop, and try and fight, and that you wanna, with all means, trying to prevent that. Go on! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, oy! Whoa, whoa, whoa, boy! Whoa, whoa, oy, oy, oy, oy, oy! Get out the way. And if that thing kicks you up, there's no wondering about it, he will kill you. If he kicks you in your chest, he will kick you and he'll break you, he'll burst your heart. Just watch out, hey? If she comes through here... (dramatic music)Fuck!

Narrator:

For Jacques, this is a nightmare. The giraffe are getting stressed and starting to panic.

Speaker:

This is when things go wrong. (boma rustling) (gentle music)What the hell!

Narrator:

Time is running out for Jacques Ells and his wildlife capture team. They're clearing out this game reserve of its wild animals and have only 24 hours left to complete the job. (boma rustles) Jacques's got a problem. Three giraffes, captured in the boma, are desperate to escape, and are panicking. One kick from these huge animals is enough to kill a man.

Speaker:

This is when things go wrong. If they don't cooperate, we're absolutely useless against giraffe. (dramatic music) (ground team yelling) Oh, it's chaos here, chaos. We lost, well, we lost these.

Narrator:

With one of the giraffes having broken out of the boma, Jacques decides to release the other two.

Jacques:

Watch out!

Narrator:

Before anybody gets badly hurt. (rustling trees)

Speaker:

It doesn't always go right. They're too tall, they got hooked on the cable and then they started stressing. Yeah, it's better to let them go. I'm not gonna put them on the truck, they've already stressed too much. It's not a good thing. Well, at least no one's hurt. (Mark laughs) You see one of those things jump on you.

Interviewer:

He was kicking though, wasn't it?

Speaker:

He'll scratch a bit more than your paint. Yeah, yeah. (gentle guitar music) (fire crackles) They were captured, they were cornered, so it's a wild animal, they don't wanna be cornered. They just wanna get away, they don't like people, so. Basically, they would have killed us, not by choice, we're in the way.

Speaker:

When I first started game capture, we had a guy killed. He was walking on the outside of the curtain, on the plastic curtain, and the sun was shining through, so his silhouette was there, and the giraffe kicked, and he obviously didn't see it coming, and he was killed, without even knowing what was happening. (mellow music)

Narrator:

It's the last day on the reserve for the animal wrangling team, and they still have to capture the giraffe.

Speaker:

These giraffe on this property they're very tame, they're not scared of people. These giraffe yesterday were just looking at me, you know, just as if, like, "You're just one of us, come stand here by my side, boy," and that's a problem. (helicopter blades whir)

Mark:

As much as I can, and bring them slowly, so that I can put some pressure, at the end there.

Speaker:

Yeah, that'll be better Mark. What Mark's doing is he's keeping away from them, just bring them slowly, and as soon as they're in the boma, he's gonna put pressure on them, to try and scare them with the helicopter, 'cause that's the only thing they're really scared of, is the helicopter (helicopter blades whir) (dramatic music) (shrill whistling)

Jacques:

Yes, that's you, fucker! (shrill whistling)

Narrator:

The technique is working. Mark's driven the giraffe into the boma. But if he pushes them any further, the down draft from his helicopter may blow the boma apart.

Speaker:

(Jacques) Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Fuck!

Narrator:

So once again, it's down to Jacques to the get the giraffe into the loading trucks.

Speaker:

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! (ground team speaking foreign language)

Narrator:

But, once again, they don't want to move forward, and Mark's efforts with a big stick are not having much effect.

Jacques:

They come, they come quickly, they're very deceptive. Come on guys, just go in there, then our problem's over. As soon as we fight, they turn and look.

Narrator:

The capture team are forced to improvise, by attaching a prodder to a long stick. (ground team member speaks foreign language)

Wrangler:

Come, come on, come on, come on! Ya, prodder, prodder, man, prodder, man, prodder, prodder, prodder. Come on, come on!

Narrator:

It works and the giraffes are finally into the truck. For Jacques and Mark it's job done.

Speaker:

Johann, thank you very much. I think we got...

Speaker:

Thanks a lot.

Speaker:

All the animals in, thank you very much. (gentle music)

Narrator:

After seven days, they've caught nearly 100 tons of wild animals, worth more than 300,000 pounds. Jacques and his team have made a healthy profit, but there's no time to rest before the next job.

Speaker:

Tomorrow is a different farm, different owners, different problems. Same fucking pilot, but what can we do. (laughs) (upbeat music)

Speaker:

My philosophy of life is, if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room.

Speaker:

If you're not willing to take the risks, break a leg every now and then, get cut up, and maybe lose your leg every now and then, no, then go home, go home, go do something else, go sit in an office. Are you still looking for some giraffe? When I go to bed at night, I just wanna know that today I've lived and I've experienced something. Every morning it's something different. I still get the butterflies, you know. Thank you, man, bye-bye. All right, animal sold. Woo! (shouting)

Narrator:

Next week on Danger Men, the RAF's least secret weapon, in a quest for excellence.

Speaker:

We want perfection and if we don't get that, then, frankly, we're not that happy.

Narrator:

In the Red Arrows, a pilot's first mistake could be his last.

Man:

It's when there's a lapse in concentration that things can go wrong. (aircraft engine roars) (upbeat music)