Latest News on Elephant Diaries II - to be aired on BBC 1 January 2008 - 12/2/2007
We have again been given new dates for the long-awaited BBC broadcast of Elephant Diaries II, which will air on BBC1 in early January 2008. Elephant Diaries II filmed by BBC’s Natural History Unit follows the work of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust over the period of a year. The airing dates are provisionally set as below but please keep an eye on the website for any further changes to the schedule!
Programme 1 - Mon 07 January @ 19.30
Programme 2 - Wed 09 January @ 19.30
Programme 3 - Fri 11 January @ 19.30
Programme 4 - Mon 14 January @ 19.30
Programme 5 - Fri 18 January @ 19.30
The latest release date set by the BBC for Elephant Diaries I on DVD is now 18th March 2008 but, similarly, please keep an eye on the website for any changes. On release the DVD will be available to buy direct from the DSWT either by cheque or online at our specially created website www.elephantdiaries.org This site includes information to support the Elephant Diaries series, behind the scenes photos, elephant facts, DSWT project summaries, UK fostering information and a small shop selling t-shirts and DVDs. We hope you will take a moment now or when Elephant Diaries II is airing to visit the site and enjoy it for yourself
INFORMATION FOR “ELEPHANT DIARIES Series 2”
BBC ONE
PROGRAMME 1 – Monday 7th January 2008, BBC1 at 19.30
Elephant Diaries
Being orphaned is just the beginning
The little elephant orphans are back! It’s time to catch up on some old friends and meet some new ones as they face some of the biggest challenges of their short lives.
For a baby elephant, family life is everything and losing your mother is the worst possible start in life. Elephant Diaries returns with another emotional roller-coaster of year in the lives of a unique group of orphaned baby elephants rescued by The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya. Here they are nurtured by dedicated keepers who become their “surrogate mothers”. But will they ever be able to recover from the loss of their own mothers and face up to the challenges of taking their first steps back into the wild?
Tonight, Michaela Strachan is in Nairobi where she catches up with Lualeni, the grief-stricken little orphan who watched her mother die. One year on, will she have come to terms with her devastating loss? Jonathan Scott is back in Tsavo where Emily, the old matriarch of the orphan herd who is now living wild, has a surprise for him. Jonathan is also reunited with Wendi, once the leader of the baby elephant orphans, who is now a 4 year-old with an identity crisis. And a full scale emergency unfolds as a tiny baby elephant is left for dead in the wilds of Tsavo National Park.
PROGRAMME 2 – Wednesday 9th January 2008, BBC1 at 19.30
Tonight, after the shattering news that the newly rescued baby, little Ndololo, is blind, the keepers pull out all the stops to give him a second chance in life. But will it be enough? In Tsavo, Jonathan Scott follows the attempts to pull Wendi out of her deepening identity crisis and give her a new role in the herd. How will she react when three confused and vulnerable young orphans arrive from the nursery? And back in Nairobi, Michaela Strachan joins in a very special game of football - the return match between the keepers and the herd of little orphaned elephants.
PROGRAMME 3 – Friday 11th January 2008, BBC1 at 19.30
A new baby orphan has been rescued in Tsavo, but needs to be flown to Nairobi if it is to survive. At the nursery, Michaela Strachan follows the extraordinarily intense bond that has developed between the orphan herd’s mini-matriarch Lualeni and the youngest orphan, Makena. But how will they react to the arrival of Chyulu, the new and very needy rescued baby? Poaching is a major cause of elephants being orphaned, so in Tsavo Jonathan Scott goes on bush patrol with a team from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to see what’s being done. And elsewhere in Tsavo, the Trust’s vet undertakes a dangerous and dramatic attempt to rescue a young elephant from a poacher’s snare.
PROGRAMME 4 – Monday 14th January 2008, BBC1 at 19.30
Tonight, Jonathan Scott is in Tsavo where one of the older orphans, Mweiga, is struggling with debilitating painful joints and a possible heart condition. The keepers are trying her on a new cocktail of vitamins and supplements, but will her medicine work? At the Nairobi nursery, it is time for the mini-matriarch Lualeni to leave her beloved Makena and join the older orphans at the Ithumba release site. But Lualeni does not want to go. Michaela Strachan follows the heart-rending separation. And back in Tsavo, one of the older orphans goes missing.
PROGRAMME 5 (Last in Series) – Friday 18th January 2008, BBC1 at 19.30
Tonight, little orphan Makena’s world is turned upside down when she wakes to find her beloved Lualeni has gone. In Tsavo Jonathan Scott joins the two new arrivals from the nursery. How will they cope among the big herd as they explore life back in the wilds? And in the final twist of the series, a newly-rescued tiny orphan baby is found next to his mother’s body. Michaela Strachan rushes to the airport in Nairobi to await his arrival. Vulnerable and all alone, everyone hopes that little Shimba’s story will have a happy ending.
