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Shamwari also runs breeding programmes for the endangered Cape mountain Like pioneers, over the years, the and for . Farmers were Hannsens have donned boots and leather shooting the mountain to stop hats and rolled up their sleeves to remove them grazing land used by their cattle, swathes of thorn bushes with their bare until there were only two dozen left. hands. While antelopes, elephants and Thanks to dedicated conservationists, over other animals clear out the brush in a thousand mountain zebras now live in the wilderness, cattle ranches are being reserves such as Shamwari, in an enclosed surrounded by dense, tall undergrowth. area of thousands of hectares, protected Predators such as need open from predators. Imported cattle plagues landscapes to hunt so the Hannsens are eradicated most of the buffalo in South restoring this landscape, already having Africa and the buffalo in Shamwari are cleared several hundred hectares using particularly valuable because they are tractors. free from illnesses such as foot and mouth disease. Only healthy buffalo are sold and EPISODE 3: placed in other reserves. THE PRIDE OF THE EASTERN CAPE - The private Shamwari Game Reserve is The Shamwari team also cares for or 70 kilometres from Port Elizabeth in phaned and wounded wildlife. Young Eastern Cape province, standing on prop- cheetahs, antelopes, elephants and rhinos erty once occupied by run-down farms and are treated and, if possible, released into depleted grasslands. Businessman Adrian the wild. Gardiner purchased the site, restoring the 25,000 hectares to its original wilderness The restoration of the Shamwari reserve state and the landscape now looks like it — stretches of savannah, is not complete. Non-native plant species did 200 years ago have to be removed regularly, and green hills, rivers and towering cliffs. In new animals are introduced, such as the 1990s, there was virtually no wildlife — small elegant wildcats once left but now Shamwari is home to several extinct in southern Africa. They were prides, , elephants and taken from a reserve near Kruger Park; the large herds of antelopes. rangers in Shamwari have since released several dozen of them back into the wild. Biologists, veterinarians, ecologists and Reintroducing servals improves the ecolog- rangers manage the reserve, counting ical balance in this recreated wilderness. the animals and developing a sophisti- cated system to protect the rhinos from poachers.

BACK TO PARADISE WILDLIFE HAVENS IN AFRICA 3 × 53 min. Written and directed by Harald Pokieser NATURE Executive producers: Sabine Holzer, Andrea Gastgeb 4K, 5.1 and Stereo

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— yet also known for Africa — a wonder of nature, famous for its many wild animals, including , elephants and their drastic decrease in numbers. Unlike many other nature reserves, Lewa works closely with local residents, running training ut it’s not all bad news. In co-operation programmes to highlight the need to protect with national parks, bold entrepreneurs natural habitats and wildlife. The Massai bring are establishing private nature reserves their cattle into the sanctuary to graze, with and with the help from biologists, each family agreeing with the sanctuary’s Becologists and other experts, they are trying to management how many cattle may graze and save the African wilderness and the animals that where. live there. — and of hope. These are stories of success EPISODE 2: MISSION BIG CAT Namibia, the desert paradise on Africa’s south- - EPISODE 1: SAVING THE GIANTS west coast, protects its wildlife in legendary The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, in the vast wil- national parks such as Etosha. But as the wilder derness at the foot of Mount— , not just is ain legend Kenya ness continues to shrink with the expansion of of ecology and conservation cattle ranches, dedicated individuals are helping but throughout Africa. Famous for fabulous to preserve Namibia’s natural treasures. lodges and exciting , its true mission is to protect rhinoceros. Tammy, Donna and Wayne Hannsen are siblings who have, over the last two decades, trans- Poaching has reduced Kenya’s formed their 50,000-hectare cattle ranch into from 20,000 to 650 in just a few decades. Since a nature reserve and established the Africat 2007, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, founded by Foundation, dedicated to protecting cheetahs Lewa, has taken in a hundred rhinoceros from and lions. Their Okonjima Farm is now a wild- other national parks and fitted them with life paradise. Giraffes strut around between transmitters. Another 70 rhinos live in Lewa’s metre-high termite hills and zebras can be territory and now Lewa and Ol Pejeta care seen grazing, while a family of squealing wild for nearly half of Kenya’s rhinoceros. A team boars passes by and ostriches race against oryx watches the animals around the clock, checking antelopes. on their health, observing births and monitoring the calves’ development. Part of the site is used for tourism which financ- es the rest of the reserve, where 29 cheetahs, Experts at Lewa also monitor large elephant four , four lions and a pack of wild dogs herds that wander into the sanctuary, and — a rare species which, unlike live in an area measuring 22,000 hectares. More Grévy’s zebras than a dozen cheetahs will be freed into the plains zebras, does not live in herds. Biologists wilderness over the next few years, as will three in the sanctuary want to know why lions prefer young wild dogs, hopefully to be accepted by a these zebras as prey, so they fitted a dominant pack of wild dogs that have settled around the male lion, ‘Mufasa’, with a collar transmitter, farm. and monitor how a pride of 22 lions hunt. They also monitor a group of hyenas. Tammy Hansen, an expert on big cats, works off the farm in the western part of Etosha National Large elephant herds trample through the Park. She studies the lions that attack— which cattle is why sanctuary to and back, along and goats on surrounding farms a corridor cleared for them at great expense lions are often shot or poisoned on the outskirts and effort, with financial assistance provided of Etosha. Tammy works with park experts, by organisations from Kenya and abroad. The developing ways to resolve the conflict between old migration routes had been blocked off by farmers and the big cats. settlements and farms.