The Search for the Knysna Elephants Documentary
Animal Planet UK on Saturday, 13/06/2009 at 21:00
The Search for the Knysna Elephants, a documentary that tells the remarkable story of the world's most southerly elephants, and Gareth Patterson's findings on this population, will premiere on Animal Planet UK on Saturday, 13/06/2009 at 21:00.
Despite ivory hunting, sport hunting and poaching in the past, the lack of protection in more recent times, and deemed 'a functionally extinct population' in the past decade, The Search for the Knysna Elephants, tells how quietly, unseen, and without the aid of humankind, the Knysna elephants have brought themselves back from the very brink.
As recent as 1999, it was thought that only one Knysna elephant was still alive, an elderly female, known by the forest people as 'The Matriarch'. Gareth embarked on his research on the Knysna elephants in 2001, and in the course of covering thousands of kilometres on foot, he discovers evidence of a small breeding population. Follow Gareth's forest guard friends, Wilfred Oraai and Karel Maswatie in the documentary as they increasingly discover evidence in the forest of a male Knysna elephant that never before had been seen...The Search for the Knysna Elephants is a fascinating and inspiring insight into the hidden world of these "miracle'"elephants.
For more info and to watch a video about the Knysna Elephants and Gareth's studies see his website: http://www.garethpatterson.com/