Wildfires Threaten the Operation and Big Cats
Clip: Episode 1 | 3m 3sVideo has Closed Captions
The situation becomes critical as wildfires sweep across the Delta, straight toward the team's camp.
The situation becomes critical as wildfires to the north change direction, driving them straight toward the team's camp. It's the biggest fire on the Okavango Delta in five years, and it puts the operation and big cats at risk.
Wildfires Threaten the Operation and Big Cats
Clip: Episode 1 | 3m 3sVideo has Closed Captions
The situation becomes critical as wildfires to the north change direction, driving them straight toward the team's camp. It's the biggest fire on the Okavango Delta in five years, and it puts the operation and big cats at risk.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipGod, thats unstoppable.
Back to camp.
Back to camp.
It was pretty scary.
I won't lie.
Get your passports from your rooms.
♪ A change in wind direction, drives it closer to camp.
♪ By morning.
Still hot, oh gosh.
The situation is critical.
It's coming south towards the camp.
♪ Man: This is film camp calling all vehicles out at the moment.
We'd like everyone to return to camp, please.
you'll get instructions from here.
Bestelink: Seems crazy lighting a fire right by your camp, but it's managed and controlled and can form a buffer... ♪ and you can't control it any other way.
Narrator: To protect camp, a strip of land is being deliberately burned around the perimeter.
It was pretty scary.
I won't lie.
Get your passports from your rooms.
Bestelink: The entire film camp is in the path of the fire, so this is about protecting assets and protecting the operation.
So maybe here for a bit.
So much closer than it was last night.
It really is.
It's approaching rapidly.
Buchanan: You can see with the drone quite clearly what they're trying to do, so they're basically burning a whole strip so that if the fire does continue to come this way, it will get to this burnt bit which is already burnt, and it won't come any further, and the really worrying thing is, it is coming.
It's coming straight towards us.
♪ You know, lots of animals can outrun fire.
They can outfly it, but if you've got animals with young-- whether it's lions, whether it's leopards-- you know, that's really bad news.
Can't get my lens wide enough to capture all of the smoke.
That's how much smoke there is.
Bestelink: The wind has really picked up from the north, and it's driving this fire down.
You get a bit of wind in it, and it just wants to go.
Buchanan: [Bleep].
You can see how quick it was.
That was, like, just on the other side of the existing burn, and then it was up and away.
♪ Narrator: The need to evacuate camp becomes a real possibility.
It's right here.
It's coming through.
Buchanan: God, that's unstoppable.
Back to camp!
Back to camp!
Anna, back up, please.
Go back to camp.
Buchanan: We're all just-- Everyone's got to go back to the camp.
It's so close now and out-of-control that it's pointless trying to fight it here.
Yeah.
The fire, it's gotten wildly out of control.
The camp could burn down.
Video has Closed Captions
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Video has Closed Captions
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