Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan captures the inspiring lives of pachyderms in BBC’s Elephant Family & Me.
THEY’RE the world’s largest land animals, beaming with regal majesty and charming allure.
The oldest known elephant in the world lived for 86 years and the heaviest on record weighed over 10 tonnes.
Scottish wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan captures an intimate look at the gigantic creatures in the two-part documentary, Elephant Family & Me.
Produced by the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, this is the latest in the Family & Me series that Buchanan, 45, has shot and presented over the years.
“The main character is an elephant named Wendy. Orphaned at 2 days old, she was nursed back to health and raised by humans and eventually released back into the wild,” says Buchanan when met earlier this year in Liverpool, UK during the BBC Worldwide Showcase 2017 event.
He adds that the story is told at a defining point in her life — when she gives birth to a truly wild elephant calf, named Wiva.
FAMILY AFFAIR
Filmed in the spectacular Tsavo wilderness of Kenya, he says of the teenage elephant mother: “We concentrated on how she makes the best of a bad situation.”
Explaining that elephants learn everything that’s valuable to them from their mothers, he asks: “So with never having a mother herself, how does Wendy strive to be the best mother to her calf?”
But that’s where family comes in and Buchanan adds that it’s a unique story people can very easily relate to.
“Elephants love each other far better than humans do,” he says with a laugh of how Wendy forms a bond with her adoptive family in the wild.
“There’s an inherent closeness and strong familial connection. So it’s about a family muddling through lots of obstacles but all working together,” he says.
With the first one hour-episode focusing on Wendy’s struggle to raise her first baby, the second one is set during the height of the dry season.
On top of that is the birth of a new baby, Gawa.
GETTING CLOSE
On being able to get into the thick of things, Buchanan credits his elephant mentor, Benjamin Kyalo, who works at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya.
The organisation has been serving as surrogate mothers to 200 orphaned elephants, many that are now fully grown and living in the wild.
“Kyalo has a longstanding relationship with the elephants and since he trusted me, they in turn warmed up to me as well,” says Buchanan, adding that they’re very perceptive creatures.
“They’re always aware of you, so you have to always be aware of them too.”
Elephants can be incredibly dangerous animals and they kill more people in Africa than any of the top predators there. But Buchanan overcame his fears quickly.
“Once you spend time with them you begin to understand them and their body language, as well as the subtleties.”
“Eventually, you can’t help but see the similarities between their behaviour and ours,” he says.
EVER LOVING
It’s true that elephants never forget and they remember everything from the moment of birth.
“These memories are what will keep them alive. So in a draught, even if they haven’t been back to a place in 20 years, they’ll remember how to return there for water a 100km away,” he says.
Elephants are intelligent, sensitive and emotional animals. Their ability to figure things out and the level of care they have for one another is staggering. Apparently, if a baby elephant complains, the entire family will go over to touch and caress it.
“I suppose it’s a love for their family which motivates them, from what we saw during filming,” says Buchanan.
He relates an incident where a baby elephant was born and when the rest of the herd arrived and realised what had happened, there was a huge celebration of trumpeting and caressing of the calf.
“If you think we humans have cornered the market on euphoria, the elephants are way off the scale,” he says enthusiastically.
DARKNESS AND LIGHT
When asked about his takeaway from filming this project, Buchanan says that he was blown away by Kyalo, who has devoted his life to these animals.
“He even sacrificed time with his own family because he cares so deeply for these elephants and has great respect for their lives.”
The interview takes a dark turn when Buchanan talks about the atrocities that befall elephants, due to illegal poaching for the ivory trade.
“I felt appalled and angry but also very sorry for the creatures,” he says.
On seeing some of the damage done firsthand, he says: “I felt really ashamed to be a human being.These families ripped apart and slaughtered just so someone can have an unnecessary trinket on a shelve.”
He adds that besides the ivory issue, the biggest threat to elephants is the loss of their habitat due to human encroachment.
“The days of Africa being one big place of wild things is long gone. It’s alarming to see how marginalised wildlife currently is,” says Buchanan.
Not to sound all down and dire, he adds that Elephant Family & Me is actually quite uplifting and inspiring.
“Elephants are very joyous animals to be around. They’re veritably good fun and they love being together,” he says.
The social creatures can actually display grief, altruism, compassion and self-awareness. They can purr like cats and laugh too. But most importantly, they love to play!
“Elephants of all ages will play,” says Buchanan, who adds with a smile that: “when you watch a baby elephant playing in the mud, that’s just the most engaging thing to witness.”
Visit www.bbc.co.uk for more details.
Elephant Family & Me premieres tonight at 8pm on BBC Earth (HyppTV Channel 501). Watch it also via the BBC Player app or online at www.bbcplayer.com.