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MUSIC: "Feast of the Mau Mau"
by Screamin' Jay Hawkins

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Vultures.

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The most maligned
of the world's birds.

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The undertakers.

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The cleaners.

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# Cut the fat off the back
of a baboon... #

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Able to strip a carcass in minutes.

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These birds have got to be tough
and aggressive to

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survive in one of the most savage
environments on Earth.

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# To the feast with
the beast of the Mau Maus

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# They make wine
from the spine of a bulldog... #

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But there's more to these birds
than meets the eye.

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And I want to prove it.

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I think they're charismatic...

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..intelligent...

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..even beautiful.

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Maybe we've got them all wrong.

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The plains of East Africa.

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It's here, on these vast grasslands,
where predators

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and prey play out their life
and death struggles.

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And it's here where vultures
thrive...

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..profiting from the death
of others.

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Vultures are one of the few
animals known to rely

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solely on carcasses
of the dead for food.

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It's a niche existence, but one
suited to this savage paradise.

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'I've been filming wildlife
on the African plains for 20 years.

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'Nowhere on Earth can match
it for its drama.'

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But vultures are a family of birds
normally overlooked.

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They're creatures to film
when you're killing time...

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..waiting for something more
glamorous to show up.

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I've always had a sort of morbid
fascination for them.

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There are 23 species of vulture
worldwide, but I've come to

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take a closer look at East African
vultures to prove

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that beneath that ugly facade lurks
a creature as fascinating

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and beautiful as any other.

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You might have to bear with me
on this one!

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The Serengeti National Park
in Tanzania.

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'It's February
and the plains are empty.

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'Finding vultures is proving
to be difficult.'

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It's the end of the dry season
and although there are a few

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animals out on the plains, there
clearly aren't enough of them dying!

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I assumed the plains would be
heaving with vultures,

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but it's a few
days before I find any.

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And when I do track them
down, they seem very hungry.

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I don't know how anyone's getting
any eating done because every

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time anyone gets their head and neck
into the carcass to actually get

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some meat, someone else comes along
and just batters them from behind.

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And they all just end up fighting
the whole time.

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And the most you see them
eating fills eight, ten seconds.

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They really are the most repulsive,
disgusting,

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ugly, vicious, ghoulish-sounding...

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..antiheroes, which
is probably why I love them so much.

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The problem is I've got no idea
what's happening here.

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It's just a mass of angry birds
fighting over a carcass.

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I know it must be more complex than
that. Life always is!

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Do you want some food? Food!

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'Simon Thomsett - world vulture
expert and nanny.'

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What a dude! Come on. Look.

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# Food, glorious food! #

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Come on. See, you can see how big
he is.

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'Simon rescued this Ruppell's
Griffon vulture after an eagle tried

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'to kill it.

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'If anyone can let me into the
secrets of vultures, it's him

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'and his friend.'

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So, do I pick a piece up?

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Yup.

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And oops! You're
supposed to eat this bit, not me.

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Well, you can see that it's pretty
useless at eating on its own.

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Cos it's just going to pull
it around, isn't it?

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Yeah. It needs to have a heavy body
behind it, something that you can...

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Yeah, so put... Hold it down really
hard, like this. Right.

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And then... And then it can...

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Otherwise it's just going to pull
it... Pull it like that

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and not get anything off it.

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So now you're... Turn it over.
You're being a heavy mammal. Right.

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And now it can use that bill to good
effect by pulling back.

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So efficient, isn't it?
Look at that!

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Now, it couldn't eat that, see?
Why not? Ooh! So shall I...?

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Why couldn't it eat it? Cos it wants
to eat little tiny pieces of it.

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Right. So, if I hold it and
let it... Yeah.

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And the other thing is try to cover
the food like this, OK? Right.

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It'll actually eat
out of the middle of your hand.

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So, it'll go underneath?

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Yes, and tuck in underneath and put
its head in. The power is amazing!

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You really don't appreciate
the power and the efficiency of it

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when you... When you watch them
on a kill, do you?

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Ow! Not me!

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HE LAUGHS

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'I can't imagine a tool more
perfectly

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'designed for stripping meat
off a bone than this vulture's beak

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'when combined with its strong neck
and powerful tongue.'

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That's so delicate, isn't it?

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Are you looking at yourself
in the lens?

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You are, aren't you?

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What do you think?
Have you seen yourself lately?

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Well, you're looking pretty good.
Have you given him a name?

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Yeah, he's called Gollum.
That's just so unfair.

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THEY LAUGH

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You really have
bought into the whole stereotype.

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'Obviously, I fall in love with
Gollum straight away. Who wouldn't?

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'He has charisma and, for a bird,
he seems full of character

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'and intelligence.

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'He's also surprisingly clean,
and despite trying to bite me,

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'very well-behaved.'

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Try and clean his bill for him.

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Just grab his head and just sort of
rub your hands up and down his bill.

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He really appreciates it.

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He don't want to play with me.
He doesn't know me.

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'Gollum's one of the only captive
Ruppell's vultures in Africa.'

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Very good!

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'And Simon hopes to release him
one day.'

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You goofy bird!

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'Understanding how Gollum eats
is fascinating.'

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It's just something to
clean your bill on, hey?

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'But I want to see vultures
feeding in the wild.

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'And right now is the perfect time.'

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The long-awaited rains have finally
come to the southern Serengeti.

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Too late for some.

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LION ROARS

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Rain is as important to the vultures
as it is to any animal here...

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..because following the rains
are the herds.

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The great wildebeest migration is
just a few days away

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and everyone's waiting for it.

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It won't be long before this
place becomes vulture

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heaven as they fly in from all over
East Africa, so it's the perfect

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time for me to really get to know
them and see them at their best.

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'Simon wants to show me
that there's a lot more going on

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'when vultures are feeding
than meets the eye.

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'So we've come out to the
Serengeti in search of carcasses.'

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It's last night, isn't it?
Must have been.

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You see the way that it's all been
cut right through here? Yeah.

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Incisors or something.
This, for vultures?

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Honestly, this is the best thing
ever. Nice and fresh.

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And they do like fresh meat.

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How long would they take to strip
something like this down to

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basically skin and bone?
Well, about 100 vultures?

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Take them about 20 minutes. Really?

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Each one eating about 500 grams,
a kilogram. 20 minutes? 20 minutes.

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That's incredible, isn't it?

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They just come in. Choo! Can
clean this thing up within minutes.

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You see all these white lesions here?
Yeah.

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They're going all the way,
spread throughout the whole
of the lungs, everywhere, really.

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It looks to me
like it might have bovine TB.

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Whatever it is, it's
certainly diseased.

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So, if that's bovine TB, it's
basically very contagious to

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other animals that could then pick
that up and spread it?

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Certainly, especially to other
wildebeests. So, yeah.

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So, what you want really is
a cleaning crew to come in

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and completely clean it and get rid
of all that disease, don't you? Yup.

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And guess who that's going to be?

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OK, let's get these cameras in it.
When I say in it, I mean in it.

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All right, you go!

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'I want Simon to explain exactly
what's going on

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'when vultures turn up
and fight over this carcass.

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'So, in order to dissect the action
on the obliging wildebeest, we rig

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'it with cameras, which we can then
watch on a monitor back in the car.

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'Simon then insists we get well
back as the vultures will be

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'nervous of us.

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'But it's not long before their keen
eyes spot the kill.'

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How far would they be able to spot
a kill like this from?

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Wouldn't be surprised if they can
see at least 20 kilometres, you know,

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especially other vultures going in.

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These things really are amazingly
cautious.

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They come in, a few of them send out
a couple of scouts beforehand.

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They go in and have a look.
Sometimes they just fly over,

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sit in the trees,
and a long distance away.

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Then they all start massing around
and basically, they're sort

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of pulling straws, you know, who's
going to be the first one to go in.

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And it's usually the less cautious,
you know, juveniles,

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who really don't know what's up
and they just go in there first.

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And then, if she doesn't get harmed,
all the other adults

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and other species come in.

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This is sort of the typical
idea of what most people

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have about the African savanna,
you know, predator kills,

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and then all the vultures come piling
in. But no, they're very cautious.

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They know, as we do,
that thing was killed by a carnivore,

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so they're not
going to come in in a hurry.

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Simon, I've got
a vulture on the ground.

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'I'm amazed how cautious
the vultures are.'

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And they're coming right...
No, they're on the carcass.

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They're feeding straight away. Yeah,
they're now... Ice has been broken.

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Everybody's just going to pile in.
So it's every man for himself now.

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'Armed with cameras on the ground
and a long lens in the car,

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'Simon and I can get a really good
look at the action.'

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To me,
this looks like complete chaos.

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Everyone fighting over the...
the food,

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actually reminds me of Sunday lunch
when I was a kid.

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But is there any order to this?

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If you were to take a photograph
from directly above, you'd see

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the carcass in the middle,
the dominant vultures immediately

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eating it, the less dominant
vultures around the outside.

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Marabou storks, hooded vultures,
in a sort of a growing ring.

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So it looks like chaos right now,
but there is some order.

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And you can see when they really are
getting very angry, they stretch

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out their necks and they just make
that horrible hissing roar.

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And they're just bashing into one
another. They're real thugs,

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aren't they?

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They have incredibly strong necks.
So when you see them

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actually biting one another, you
think they're doing terrible damage.

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But their necks are a bit
like pythons and snakes.

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They have such incredibly
strong necks.

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They can pull about 20kg,
40-pound pull,

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straight pull with just
the muscles of their neck.

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'So vultures might be ugly to us,

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'but they're actually beautifully
designed to do what they do.

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'They have long necks to reach right
up inside the carcass, which,

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'critically, have few feathers

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'so they don't get dirty
and store bacteria.

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'They've got strong hooked
beaks for ripping flesh

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'and a powerful tongue with
backward-facing spines.

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'And listening to Simon, I realise
there does seem to be some

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'order in this chaos -

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'a hierarchy decided by age,
bluff and species.

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'There's not just one
species of vulture here.'

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What's this vulture here, then? That
one's a... They're both white-backs.

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White-backs have the black bill,
slightly smaller.

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That one's the other one.

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The Ruppell's -
a totally different skull shape.

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It has an ivory-coloured bill.

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Adults have that...
that pale yellow eye.

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White-backs have a dark eye
all the time.

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'And then another vulture turns up -
a Lappet-faced vulture.

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'He looks bigger than the others
and a little more handsome,

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'if I dare say.'

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I love that strut,
that attitude they've got!

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Look at that guy!
A stunning-looking creature.

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And he's just piling in there,
saying, "I'm the man!"

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'This guy is clearly the boss
and the other vultures know it,

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'backing off, giving him
the space he needs to feed.'

230
00:16:40,440 --> 00:16:43,120
He is tearing away at the edges
of the scapula here,

231
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:44,320
tearing off the sinew.

232
00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,440
He's not eating any of the raw meat.

233
00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,200
He's eating these tiny little
stringy bits of tendon, isn't he?

234
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:56,280
There's all that meat there.

235
00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:58,120
You know, this film really is
very valuable

236
00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:01,520
because we can see precisely
what he's eating.

237
00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:04,600
You wouldn't think that that is
going to sustain a huge vulture.

238
00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:09,280
'So each vulture species
has a niche.

239
00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:12,520
'The Lappet-faced eats the tendons
and visceral tissue.

240
00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:18,280
'The Ruppell's dominate the best
meat on the carcass.

241
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,480
'And the smaller white-backed
vultures get what they can.

242
00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:30,080
'Within just half an hour, they've
cleaned up the disease-ridden

243
00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:31,200
'wildebeest.

244
00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:35,480
'Their stomachs are full
and they've stored more

245
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,440
'meat in their bulging crops,
ready to digest later.

246
00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:42,600
'Some are now so stuffed that they
struggle to fly.

247
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:48,720
'Others, however, have chicks
to feed

248
00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:51,360
'and head off on a long journey
back to the nest.

249
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:55,200
'And that's exactly where
we're going next.

250
00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,520
'Simon tells me that vultures make
very dedicated parents.

251
00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:04,560
'So we head for their nest sites

252
00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:09,200
'across the border from Tanzania
into Kenya en route to Lake Kwenia.

253
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:17,200
'This hidden wildlife oasis
on the edge of the Rift Valley is

254
00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:19,440
'criss-crossed with high cliffs -

255
00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:22,360
'perfect nesting
sites for Ruppell's vultures.

256
00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:28,720
'Ruppell's vultures don't just
nest anywhere.

257
00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:32,600
'They're very sensitive to
disturbance and very picky about

258
00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:36,840
'where they'll lay their eggs, so
finding a nest to film isn't easy.'

259
00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:45,360
Ah, there's a few vultures, Simon.

260
00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:48,520
It's pretty good, isn't it?
Look at that!

261
00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:51,920
Wow! It's nice to be in their world,
isn't it, on their level?

262
00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:56,200
Yeah, and this is a totally different
experience from out on the open.

263
00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,760
Look at this guy! He's just coming
right in to have a look.

264
00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:05,240
You have a huge amount coming
straight over your head,

265
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:06,480
over this way.

266
00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:07,600
Wow!

267
00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:09,800
That's incredible.

268
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:13,520
Wow!

269
00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:18,080
That's a lot of vultures, isn't it?
It's looking good today, isn't it?

270
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:22,280
100 or so? Eh? 100? What do
you reckon? Looks like it could be.

271
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:31,080
Well, very few people in the world
get to see this kind of thing.

272
00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:32,280
At this level.

273
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:35,640
That's pretty stunning.

274
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,840
'Simon's keen to show me
an old nest, which is

275
00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:44,640
'apparently made of a rather
unusual material.'

276
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,760
So, there you go.

277
00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:52,600
What, this is...? This is a nest?

278
00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:56,840
This is a solid lump
of vulture guano.

279
00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:03,120
That's amazing! That's vulture poo
over hundreds of years. Really? Yeah.

280
00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:06,800
It's just incredible. Who knows,
it could be thousands of years old.

281
00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:09,040
I mean, this is a very dry
environment, there's no...

282
00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:10,680
hardly any rain here.

283
00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,960
Something as thick as this must have
been built up very slowly.

284
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,680
Really quite disgusting, at the same
time, that I'm rubbing

285
00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:22,440
and tapping what is essentially
a massive great pile of poo!

286
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:24,520
And you're sitting in it!
I'm sitting in it!

287
00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:25,800
THEY LAUGH

288
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,640
Simon and I are after
an active nest though,

289
00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:33,240
one preferably with a
decent sized chick in it.

290
00:20:35,120 --> 00:20:39,520
I like those guys there. That's
nice hard, solid rock there.

291
00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:43,600
The ones out on the right? Yeah. OK.

292
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:47,640
Yeah, we'll go for those ones. OK.

293
00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:52,960
Early the next morning, Simon

294
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:56,800
descends the face to find a
good nest and install a camera.

295
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,640
Hello, buddy, hi.

296
00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:26,840
Oh, very cute.

297
00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:31,960
The chick sits still,

298
00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:35,560
pretending it's not there,
hoping Simon won't see him.

299
00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:43,000
Back up top I can monitor what the
camera is seeing on my laptop.

300
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,360
Yeah, that's it,
that's spot on.

301
00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:48,800
Which means we can watch the
birds without disturbing them.

302
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:56,120
Have a look at this.

303
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:05,480
Ah. Has anyone ever filmed
vultures here before?

304
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:07,560
No, never before. Not here in Kwenia.

305
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:09,520
In fact, the whole species,

306
00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:12,360
very little has been done like this.

307
00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:14,400
That's actually a pretty
big chick, isn't it?

308
00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:16,880
How old do you reckon
it is? It's deceptive

309
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:18,960
cos it... I mean, physically
it's very big

310
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:23,200
but it's only about, I think
about 45 to 60 days old.

311
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:27,440
It has, at least, another
month or so to go.

312
00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:30,640
Right. I suppose an
animal that big needs,

313
00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:33,880
certainly a chick, it's going to
need a lot of food, isn't it?

314
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:36,120
He needs at least a kilo,
maybe a bit more, a day.

315
00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:38,160
A kilo? A kilo of food.

316
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:43,840
So, Mum and Dad are coming back
feeding him a soup of, you know,

317
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:47,680
nutritious guts and livers and all...

318
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:50,440
A kilo of that a day!

319
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:55,520
But Simon and I are concerned.
We haven't seen either of

320
00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:57,440
the parents visiting the nest.

321
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:10,280
Back in the southern Serengeti and
the wildebeest have finally arrived.

322
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:15,720
1.4 million of them!

323
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,800
Around 500,000 tons of fresh meat.

324
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:28,160
And when they arrive, they calve.

325
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:32,680
No other animal is as important to
the vultures here as the wildebeest.

326
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:39,680
Vultures mainly eat the bodies of
animals that have died naturally,

327
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:43,600
of old age or starvation and
it's the other scavengers

328
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:45,920
and predators that
benefit from vultures,

329
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:47,960
not the other way round.

330
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,520
Hyenas use vultures like
their eyes in the sky.

331
00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:00,440
Where they circle may well be food.

332
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,560
Vultures and hyenas
rely on each other

333
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,640
but their relationship
is a fractious one.

334
00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:15,560
Without hyenas, the vultures
can't break through the

335
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:17,760
tough hide of the wildebeest,

336
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:21,360
and are only able to eat it
through the nose, mouth and anus.

337
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:29,680
Competition for these
openings becomes intense

338
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:33,520
and all the fighting means that
few vultures actually get to feed.

339
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:49,000
So the vultures need the hyenas
with their powerful jaws

340
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,640
to butcher the carcass and provide
access to the meat inside.

341
00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:58,520
The problem then is

342
00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:01,240
that the hyenas want to
eat it all themselves.

343
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,480
All the vultures
can do is watch.

344
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:17,600
Some vultures do build up the
courage to creep in closer

345
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,520
but hyenas will kill them,
given the opportunity.

346
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:32,240
But pestering is something
vultures are very good at.

347
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:56,800
Where vultures and hyenas gather,

348
00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,840
black-backed jackals
are sure to follow.

349
00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:10,800
Jackals are consummate thieves and
rely not on size and strength

350
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:15,000
but bravery and speed
to get past the hyenas.

351
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,360
If you want to eat at the carcass,
you've got to have guts.

352
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:54,880
The problem for the jackal, though,
is he's actually getting a little

353
00:26:54,880 --> 00:27:00,400
too big for his boots...and someone
needs to show him who's boss.

354
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:30,080
Weighing in at ten kilograms, with a
wingspan of nearly three metres,

355
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:31,960
few jackals are foolish enough

356
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,880
to mess with the might of
a lappet-faced vulture.

357
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:49,960
Back at the nest in Kwenia,
and Simon and I

358
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:53,320
finally see what we've
been waiting for.

359
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:58,360
Oh, look, there's an adult.
Ah, look. Just landed, that's great.

360
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:02,960
This is the first time we've seen

361
00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:06,000
one of the parent birds
visiting the nest.

362
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:10,880
That's a relief actually. It is.

363
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:13,760
When we put, you know, you
put the camera that close,

364
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,320
the last thing you want
to do is disturb them.

365
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,200
Well, it's getting hot,
isn't it? Look at the chick.

366
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:21,240
So happy to see Mum's back. Yeah.

367
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,840
CHICK CHIRPS

368
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:33,440
Is that the chick
begging, that noise?

369
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:35,840
That's definitely
a begging sound.

370
00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:41,840
Carrying food in their crop, rather
than digesting it in their stomach,

371
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:43,840
means that this parent bird can

372
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:46,040
bring food back from the Serengeti,

373
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,840
over 100 miles away and still
keep it reasonably fresh.

374
00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:53,880
There you go. See it regurgitate?

375
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,000
So that's why she's moving
her beak like that?

376
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:01,640
And the tongue is, literally,
pulling the food out of her throat.

377
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:12,880
Urgh, it's quite disgusting.
HE LAUGHS

378
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:15,240
It's weird cos it's very lovely,

379
00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:19,800
adult feeding chick, but it's really
quite disgusting at the same time.

380
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,200
It's so funny seeing them
in the nest like this

381
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:51,200
and not scrapping over a rotten
piece of meat on the plains.

382
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,200
And they just suddenly look
like stunningly beautiful,

383
00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:57,320
magnificent birds rather
than these, sort of, beggars

384
00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:59,720
scrapping over a
carcass, don't they?

385
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:08,560
Anything that happens on this
nest over the next few days

386
00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:10,920
is going to be very valuable.

387
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,200
We've never had an opportunity to

388
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:15,160
look at these things
that close before.

389
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,600
As we watched the nest
over the next few days,

390
00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:25,960
it became clear to us that it was
only being visited by one adult.

391
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,200
Simon assumed it was the mother.

392
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:32,360
What had happened to the
father, we don't know.

393
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:34,240
But with only one parent,

394
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,480
the chick's chances
of survival are slim.

395
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,000
Finding a kilo of meat
a day for the chick

396
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:45,920
puts an enormous pressure
on the single mum.

397
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:49,960
It means travelling huge
distances in search of carrion.

398
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:53,560
The vultures are designed for this.

399
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:55,400
Ruppell's Vultures have a wingspan

400
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:59,200
of around two and a half metres,
which are shaped for gliding.

401
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:02,320
They also have specialised
haemoglobin in their blood.

402
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:06,600
It allows them to fly at
extremely high altitude.

403
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:11,080
They've been recorded
flying at 11,000 metres,

404
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,920
higher than Everest,
higher than any other bird.

405
00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:22,400
There's now plenty of food
to be had on the plains.

406
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:26,480
There's also plenty of competition.

407
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:31,400
To find enough food for
herself and her chick,

408
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:35,240
the mother's going to have to
be assertive and aggressive.

409
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,600
But just how aggressive
do vultures actually get?

410
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:47,040
This camera is a very
cool bit of kit.

411
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:49,440
It's a specialist high-speed camera

412
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:54,160
and what it will allow me to
do is slow the action down

413
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:55,560
on the vultures.

414
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,000
And when I say slow it down,
I mean I can slow it down

415
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:02,000
up to 80 times with this thing. And
what that will allow me to do is

416
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:07,200
see, in incredible detail,
exactly what's going on

417
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:12,400
when all the vultures are arguing
and fighting over the carcass.

418
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,320
There's certainly no
shortage of scrapping

419
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:23,600
amongst the vultures on this kill,

420
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:27,040
so it's perfect for the high speed
camera. And straight away it starts

421
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:30,680
delivering, giving me a completely
new look at the vultures.

422
00:32:56,480 --> 00:33:01,520
I'm starting to see just how
incredible vultures really are.

423
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:10,280
I'm beginning to see the
beauty in the grotesque.

424
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:08,000
The high-speed camera has revealed
another side of vultures to me.

425
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:12,160
They're actually more vicious
to each other than I thought.

426
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:19,840
But I can now see how perfectly
designed they are to be like this.

427
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:25,560
They're designed to fight,
they're designed to be tough.

428
00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:30,800
So, it might seem nasty
and aggressive to us

429
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:33,440
but to them it's normal.

430
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:42,560
And ultimately many of these
birds are parents just trying to

431
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:45,480
find enough food to
feed their chicks.

432
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:50,200
And they're desperate, because the
food supply is about to run out.

433
00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:57,160
The wildebeest migration doesn't
stay long in the southern Serengeti.

434
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:03,880
It soon moves off, following the
rains into the western corridor...

435
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:08,240
..where the wildebeest disperse.

436
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,080
The plains now lie empty...

437
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:21,880
..and for the mother vulture,
finding enough food for the chick

438
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:24,360
becomes increasingly difficult.

439
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,480
Back at the nest in Kwenia,
the sun beats down.

440
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:38,840
The midday temperature
here can reach into the 40s

441
00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:44,400
and on the bare cliff edge,
there's no respite for the chick.

442
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:55,360
So, Mum creates a parasol
with her wings.

443
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:02,200
But as I watch her over the days,

444
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:07,000
I notice she seems to be spending
a lot of time shading the chick

445
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,160
and only bringing
food every other day.

446
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:15,000
Perhaps her duties are
becoming too stretched.

447
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:22,200
The chick's appetite
is now enormous.

448
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:25,000
It's growing fast,
some of its feathers

449
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,360
at over two centimetres a day.

450
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:32,440
Without enough food its bones
will fail to develop properly

451
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:34,360
and it will probably die.

452
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:40,720
Simon explains to me that
vultures breed slowly,

453
00:38:40,720 --> 00:38:43,040
only having one chick at a time.

454
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:48,280
The chances of a chick surviving
to adulthood are only around 50%.

455
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:52,160
With only one parent to
feed and protect it,

456
00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:55,040
this chick's chances
are much slimmer.

457
00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:59,480
And it gets worse.

458
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:05,040
That evening, Simon explains why
the chick may only have one parent.

459
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:11,840
The day started by
me having a chat with

460
00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:14,480
somebody out in the open plains
and I looked up and I saw

461
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,160
a whole kettle of vultures
just circling in the sky.

462
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:19,320
But my attention was drawn to a

463
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:23,080
few of them which were flying
in a funny, erratic manner.

464
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:25,920
And then some of them just simply
tumbled straight out of the air.

465
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:30,520
Fast glide and a flit and then
piling straight into the ground.

466
00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:44,360
I drove over there to go and
find him, I couldn't see him

467
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:47,640
but on my way there, there
were carcasses under trees,

468
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:50,480
virtually everywhere you looked
there were dead animals,

469
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:52,680
like dead jackal and hyena.

470
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:59,560
People had poisoned with carbofuran,

471
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:02,840
which is a pesticide used in
the agricultural industries.

472
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,800
It is widely used here to kill
wildlife.

473
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:41,840
And it is important to understand
that where the actual place is

474
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:43,280
the poison's put,

475
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:47,120
the effect of the poison is that it
doesn't stay there, it moves.

476
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:50,960
So you get mini
explosions of deaths occurring.

477
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:54,040
What happened was that the
hyena ate the cow...

478
00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:58,280
..went nine kilometres away, died.

479
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:00,560
These vultures came down to eat it

480
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,400
and within just a few minutes were
comatose and dying.

481
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:07,920
And within a few minutes of that
whatever landed on that dead

482
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,080
vulture is also dying.

483
00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:19,720
Inside that pile of dead vultures was
one living vulture whose face

484
00:41:19,720 --> 00:41:23,440
had been staring up at the sun
until its eyes were completely burnt,

485
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,320
and the corneas were burnt.

486
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:27,760
We managed to save that one
and release it later.

487
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,640
And it was catastrophic
for the vultures

488
00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:37,280
cos we lost 187 vultures in just
one poisoning incident.

489
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:42,600
We've had a big decline in vulture
numbers in East Africa.

490
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:45,960
What effect is that then going to
have on everything else,

491
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:47,640
you know, the people
and the animals here?

492
00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:52,520
Well, that's a good question
cos there's been a similar

493
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,880
thing has happened in India where
they've all died from diclofenac

494
00:41:55,880 --> 00:42:00,480
poisoning and it's been banned
and we're expecting a recovery.

495
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:03,320
One of the great arguments that
they've had is saying that

496
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:05,800
human health is at risk
if all the vultures do go.

497
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:11,240
It's not entirely clear exactly what
kind of diseases people will get

498
00:42:11,240 --> 00:42:13,680
if there's thousands of dead
and rotting animals

499
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:17,120
lying in the street that do not get
ingested by vultures.

500
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:20,640
But certainly it causes a huge
increase in domestic dogs.

501
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:23,240
And you can see really quite
a clear graph we're seeing

502
00:42:23,240 --> 00:42:26,080
the numbers of incidents of rabies
amongst people

503
00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:29,800
has shot up in the absence
of the vultures.

504
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:32,720
Other things,
such as just filthy water, you know,

505
00:42:32,720 --> 00:42:37,000
disgusting amounts of pathogens just
pouring into the main streets.

506
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,840
Similar sort of thing obviously
can happen here.

507
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:42,560
There are many places, even large
conservancies in Kenya where

508
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:44,520
you will go and see a dead animal.

509
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,360
And it just doesn't get consumed
by anything other than bacteria

510
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:48,600
and maggots.

511
00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:07,480
The next morning the mother leaves
the nest early. I assume

512
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:09,760
heading back to the Serengeti,

513
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:12,240
in search of any
remaining carcasses.

514
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:27,560
A female Verreaux's eagle
is on the prowl though.

515
00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:30,480
Patrolling the cliffs
on the hunt for vultures.

516
00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:40,200
It was a Verreaux's eagle that
knocked poor Gollum

517
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:42,640
out of the sky and broke his wing.

518
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:45,600
And an unguarded chick in the nest
would make the perfect

519
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:47,520
meal for this enormous bird.

520
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:56,040
With only one parent and an eagle
on the prowl, I don't think this

521
00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:59,280
chick is going to survive
and I don't want to watch it die.

522
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:02,600
So I decide to leave.

523
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:07,520
I head north in search of other
vultures.

524
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:19,880
Poisoning is a serious problem.

525
00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:23,800
If India's experience is anything
to go by, Africa's

526
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:26,600
problems are only just beginning.

527
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:30,160
India's vultures have
faced near extinction.

528
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:33,280
The cost to human
health has been staggering.

529
00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:36,680
Vultures had consumed around

530
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:39,640
20 million tons of rotting meat
a year.

531
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:43,760
As they declined,
the feral dog population

532
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:46,320
which carries rabies, exploded.

533
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:53,520
This has resulted in over 50,000
extra human deaths from rabies.

534
00:44:55,360 --> 00:45:01,040
It's thought the vulture decline has
cost India more than $34 billion.

535
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:07,720
Vultures are perhaps far more
important to us than we realise.

536
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:14,320
Here in Africa poisoning is
more sinister.

537
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:17,640
Poachers deliberately target

538
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:20,720
vultures for giving away their
positions to park rangers.

539
00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:26,520
And cattle farmers indirectly
kill them when they lace carcasses

540
00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:29,240
with carbofuran to poison lions
and hyenas.

541
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:44,960
To understand
the effect of poisoning,

542
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:50,160
Simon's studying how vultures move
and more crucially, where they feed.

543
00:46:04,560 --> 00:46:08,320
been catching vultures and fixing
satellite transmitters to them,

544
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,400
in order to gather a greater
understanding of their movements.

545
00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:18,640
So while Darcy watches the vultures,
Simon sets the trap.

546
00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:23,880
Simon's spent his life working
with birds of prey

547
00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:26,600
and catching vultures to him
is second nature.

548
00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:30,880
We'll just reverse out, I think.

549
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:41,280
Here they come.

550
00:46:41,280 --> 00:46:45,640
The aim is to snare a vulture
by the foot and then jump out

551
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:48,320
and grab if before it gets hurt.

552
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:51,720
The chances of it working are quite
slim and our chances

553
00:46:51,720 --> 00:46:55,800
of catching the desired young
Ruppell's vulture are even slimmer.

554
00:47:05,840 --> 00:47:07,960
Jackals are the last thing we need.

555
00:47:10,080 --> 00:47:11,640
They'll scare off the vultures

556
00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:13,400
and we risk catching one.

557
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:16,120
Not a situation either of us want to
be in.

558
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:21,800
It's a waiting game.

559
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:36,400
Got one. Go, go, go, go, Charlie.

560
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:37,560
Go, go, go, go, go, go.

561
00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:47,800
Over his head, quick. I'm trying.

562
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:50,840
Over the head, over the head.
Over the head. Good. Got it.

563
00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:52,680
Good, good, well done,
brilliant.

564
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:57,360
That's exactly what we want.

565
00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:00,640
OK, we're going to carry it to the
shade underneath the tree.

566
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:04,040
'A young Ruppell's vulture,
the perfect specimen.'

567
00:48:04,040 --> 00:48:05,720
Oh, he's so strong, Simon.

568
00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:12,760
Good, nice shady tree,
it won't get heat stress.

569
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:18,480
'The trick now is to get the
satellite transmitter on as fast

570
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:20,480
'as possible and let the bird go.

571
00:48:22,120 --> 00:48:24,800
'Darcy and Simon know exactly
what they're doing

572
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:27,200
'though and work fast
so they don't stress the bird.'

573
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:38,360
Yeah, they're massively strong things

574
00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:41,360
and really they can carry
a kilo of weight.

575
00:48:41,360 --> 00:48:45,320
This thing is pretty much the same
weight as a cigarette packet

576
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:51,400
and really weighs less than
a quarter of what his lunch weighs.

577
00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:55,720
And in time, when the battery is
finished it will simply

578
00:48:55,720 --> 00:49:00,840
fall off its back and it will be
fine.

579
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:04,760
'Within a few minutes
the transmitter's secured to the

580
00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:06,440
'vulture's back.

581
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:09,040
'It will now transmit a signal
giving its location

582
00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:10,240
'every 15 minutes.'

583
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:14,360
OK, I'm just testing to see
it's got lots of flexibility.

584
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:19,120
It can go over its shoulders,
goes over its shoulders, OK.

585
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:28,120
It feels very heavy this bird and
very strong.

586
00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:34,640
OK...put him on the ground...and
let him go.

587
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,400
That's OK. He's off.

588
00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:45,320
Ha-ha, well done. Ha-ha.

589
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:51,320
Do you think we did all right,
Simon?

590
00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:52,840
I think we did great.

591
00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:55,040
As you can see he's flying around
and literally

592
00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:58,320
within about 20 minutes he would have
completely forgotten his experience.

593
00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:01,840
The amount of data we're going to get
out of this is incredibly valuable.

594
00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:04,280
We'll be able to know where it goes,
where it breeds,

595
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:08,800
where it feeds, and really without
what we just did to it there's

596
00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:11,200
no way we're ever going to be
able to prove it.

597
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:13,640
This really is the only way
of getting the data we need.

598
00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:18,600
It's lovely to see him
circling over us now.

599
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:20,240
Looks quite relaxed now,
doesn't he?

600
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:30,920
Over the next few months the young
Ruppell's vulture travelled

601
00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:35,000
huge distances covering almost
a quarter of Kenya.

602
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:39,680
Simon and Darcy learned that it was
feeding mainly in protected areas,

603
00:50:39,680 --> 00:50:44,720
National Parks and reserves, which
are relatively safe from poisoning.

604
00:50:44,720 --> 00:50:48,480
Behaviour like this could be
the key to its survival.

605
00:50:48,480 --> 00:50:50,440
Satellite tracking also helps us

606
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:54,240
understand more about where
vultures congregate to feed.

607
00:50:54,240 --> 00:50:58,560
And there's one place they seem to
favour above all others.

608
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:01,560
The Masai Mara.

609
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:07,680
It's July and the Serengeti rains
have come north into Kenya.

610
00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:11,320
Following them, as always, are the
wildebeest.

611
00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:23,640
But here they face their greatest
challenge.

612
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:28,680
Crossing the Mara River.

613
00:51:35,680 --> 00:51:38,680
The combination of not being
particularly bright

614
00:51:38,680 --> 00:51:42,400
and not particularly good swimmers
means that many never reach

615
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:43,920
the other side of the river.

616
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:47,880
Perishing instead in the murky
water.

617
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:11,440
Phew. This is just incredible.

618
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:14,480
The number of wildebeest coming over
the edge now is just,

619
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:16,240
it's just hundreds.

620
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:25,760
This is the moment every scavenger

621
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:29,000
and predator in the Masai Mara
has been waiting for.

622
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:33,600
And vultures have flown in from
all over East Africa.

623
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:54,800
One the one hand you've got this
panic and fear of all

624
00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:58,600
the wildebeest piling in and then
on the other all the vultures

625
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:03,800
are just sitting amongst it really
quiet and calm, waiting to be fed.

626
00:53:13,480 --> 00:53:15,840
There's now a surplus of food,

627
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:18,880
as the river swells with
the corpses of the wildebeest.

628
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:37,600
And as the waters rise in the rains,

629
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:40,760
they're carried away downriver
to the waiting vultures.

630
00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:20,760
The bodies of up to 10,000
wildebeest have been recorded

631
00:54:20,760 --> 00:54:22,880
floating down the river
in a single day.

632
00:54:31,960 --> 00:54:35,680
And when they reach the shallows,
they pile up and rot.

633
00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:43,360
This is what the vultures have been
waiting for. It's the most

634
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:45,520
important feeding event of their
year.

635
00:54:58,640 --> 00:55:03,720
The hot sun and rotting corpses now
turn these shallows into a soup of

636
00:55:03,720 --> 00:55:09,160
bacteria and it's up to the vultures
and Marabou storks to clean it up.

637
00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:19,800
Vulture stomach acid is so powerful
that it can dissolve metal.

638
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:23,800
It's this adaptation that means
they can eat even the most putrid

639
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:29,920
meat and destroy dangerous diseases
such as rabies, cholera and anthrax.

640
00:55:29,920 --> 00:55:31,840
Diseases which could otherwise

641
00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:33,960
remain in the system and
proliferate.

642
00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:43,320
But downriver the carcasses pile up
uneaten.

643
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:48,680
Left to rot in the sun. Leaching
bacteria and disease into the river.

644
00:55:51,880 --> 00:55:56,720
The result of East Africa's vulture
decline is now starkly obvious.

645
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:06,040
Vultures have declined by 60% in the
Masai Mara in the last ten years.

646
00:56:06,040 --> 00:56:09,720
Not good when they're
responsible for consuming

647
00:56:09,720 --> 00:56:12,200
around 70% of the dead animals here.

648
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:17,600
Without them the meat will just rot,
diseases will increase,

649
00:56:17,600 --> 00:56:20,520
as will scavengers such as jackals
and hyenas.

650
00:56:20,520 --> 00:56:24,560
This will in turn throw
one of the world's most important

651
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:27,120
eco-systems out of balance.

652
00:56:30,240 --> 00:56:32,160
To be honest, I'm really worried.

653
00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:36,280
Deliberate poisoning of vultures
is now increasing,

654
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:39,400
not just in Kenya but all over
Africa.

655
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:42,240
Extinction is beginning to loom.

656
00:56:42,240 --> 00:56:46,080
The problem is few really care.
People like Simon Thomsett

657
00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:47,600
are tragically rare.

658
00:56:48,760 --> 00:56:53,560
We might see vultures as dirty,
filthy and ugly...

659
00:56:53,560 --> 00:56:54,600
but we need them.

660
00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:02,200
The more I've got to know them,
the more impressed I've become.

661
00:57:02,200 --> 00:57:04,600
The veneer of ugliness that
surrounds them

662
00:57:04,600 --> 00:57:06,000
has been stripped away.

663
00:57:07,840 --> 00:57:12,480
When I look at them now,
their character, their swagger,

664
00:57:12,480 --> 00:57:17,320
their extraordinary
design...I see beauty.

665
00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:20,680
MUSIC: "I Put A Spell On You"
Screamin' Jay Hawkins

666
00:57:20,680 --> 00:57:23,280
# Oh, spell

667
00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:27,920
# Oh, spell

668
00:57:29,640 --> 00:57:32,200
# I put a spell on you

669
00:57:32,200 --> 00:57:34,400
# Oh, spell

670
00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:39,320
# Oh, spell

671
00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:42,520
# Because you're mine

672
00:57:42,520 --> 00:57:45,000
# Oh, spell

673
00:57:46,800 --> 00:57:49,520
# Oh, spell

674
00:57:51,120 --> 00:57:52,880
# Stop the things you do

675
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:55,200
# Oh, spell

676
00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:02,640
# Oh, spell

677
00:58:02,640 --> 00:58:08,160
# Watch out! I ain't lying

678
00:58:10,600 --> 00:58:15,320
# You know I can't stand it

679
00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:17,080
# Oh, spell

680
00:58:18,320 --> 00:58:20,120
# No running around

681
00:58:20,120 --> 00:58:21,960
# Oh, spell

682
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:25,640
# I can't stand

683
00:58:25,640 --> 00:58:27,680
# Oh, spell

684
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:31,720
# I can't stand
no putting me down

685
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:35,160
# Oh, spell

686
00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:36,960
# I put a spell on you

687
00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:45,360
# Because...

688
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:51,400
# Spell. #