An adult elephant sprays water from its trunk after taking a drink in a watering hole | Picture: National Geographic for Disney/Robbie Labanowski
Elephants are considered a powerful, loving and wise mammals but, according to National Geopgraphic, we are only starting to unlock their deepest secrets.
The ground-breaking, award-winning natural history franchise Secrets Of returns this Earth Day with its next instalment, Secrets Of The Elephants.
The show will premiere on Disney+ as well as across Africa on National Geographic Wild (DStv channel 182, StarSat channel 221).
From Academy Award-winning filmmaker and National Geographic explorer-at-large James Cameron, the series travels the world — from the Savannahs of Africa to the urban landscapes of Asia — to discover the strategic thinking, complex emotions and sophisticated language of elephants, shaping a unique and dynamic culture.
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Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman and featuring renowned National Geographic Explorer and elephant expert Dr Paula Kahumbu, the four-part series not only reveals the extraordinary lives of different families of elephants but also highlights how similar they are to us.
The channel promises that the Secrets Of The Elephants will change everything you thought you knew about elephants forever.
Elephants have long been a source of wonder and mystery with their rich emotional lives and almost supernatural ways of navigating the world. In Secrets of the Elephants, we travel the globe to meet different families of elephants ― desert elephants, forest elephants, Asian elephants and African savannah elephants. Each with their own specific set of cultural behaviours passed between them, has an incredible story of intelligence, grace and survival to tell.
“They are powerful, loving and wise but only now are we starting to unlock the deepest secrets of the elephants. Their strategic thinking, complex emotions and sophisticated language has created a unique and dynamic culture making them more like us than we ever thought possible.”
The four-episode series that explores the courage, tenacity and complexities of elephant life in these unique contexts will land on Disney+ on Earth Day, as well as in a special back-to-back broadcast on National Geographic Wild from 6.45pm – 10pm (CAT), providing viewers with a larger-than-life viewing experience.
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The four episodes – Desert, Savanna, Asia and Rainforest – will take families on a journey across the globe, providing insight into the fascinating creatures like never before.
Several National Geographic explorers including Dr Paula Kahumbu (winner of the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year 2021), Sandy Oduor, Shane Campbell-Staton, Dominique Gonçalves and others, collaborated on the research behind the production to uncover new dimensions of elephants’ remarkable lives, to unlock their secret worlds and to understand how each sub-species has adapted to their unique environmental context in the face of evolving climate change.
Additionally, the latest science and camera technology helps portray not just how truly extraordinary they are in their own right, but also how similar they are to humans.
“With an over 135-year-old legacy in natural history content, we’re just as passionate about who’s telling our stories as the stories we tell,” said National Geographic Content President Courteney Monroe.
“Whether it be our onscreen scientists in Secrets Of The Elephants, our narrators like Natalie Portman, or our filmmakers like Jim Cameron, we have become a port-of-call for best-in-class talent who want to tell meaningful stories that inspire a deeper connection to our world.
“Our Secrets Of franchise reinforces our commitment at National Geographic to remaining THE leader in natural history storytelling,” she concluded.
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