ML141273
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: John Nielsen. Timecode In: 00:01:02. Timecode out: 02:07:28. Notes: Commentary; John Nielsen commentary; Chitwan National Park; Indian Rhinoceros; Asian Elephant. Equipment Notes: Mono=1; Single-Channel Mono; DPA 4060 Omnidirectional Microphone. NPR/NGS RADIO EXPEDITIONS Show: Nepal Log of DAT #: 3 Engineer: McQuay Date: March 28, 2001 ng = not good ok = okay g = good vg = very good JN STAND UP ON ELEPHANT FOR RHINO ROUND UP 1:03 JN ¿ when people think about base camps in Nepal they usually think about the one at 17,000 feet near Mt. Everest that is possibly more important environmentally. It is near sea level at the top of the Ganges River plain. This is the King Mahendra Trust for Wildlife Conservation. And it as at the edge ¿ we are here 1:39 JN ¿ that is where we are this morning and we are getting ready to get up on some elephants and go out and round up some rhinos 1:47 5:43 JN - we are at the edge of the forest. the sun is coming up. We are getting on the elephants. There is a morning fog. Incredible sun. a big fiery, red ball, low in the sky elephant drivers are called Mahoud 6:39 JN ¿ it is an unusual thing to climb up an elephant ¿ ok, this thing? Up here? Ahh. Namaste ¿ move forward ¿ ok¿..a little bit forward, ok. ..ok, you can feel this guy's spine cutting up through the saddle¿.it is a bigger guy than yesterday¿.and that is sal? Those trees? Mostly. 8:50 JN ¿ hard to believe an animal this big can be so nimble. Kind of gliding through the grass at the end of the woods. Stepping lightly. Several thousand pounds. Stepping lightly. 9:36 JN: We are in the woods now. 9:51 JN - a lot of tigers in this park, fortunately tigers have very little interest in people sitting on top of elephants! That is what they tell me¿.(laughter) tigers have very little interest in people 10:29 JN - the forest is low and open. A lot of brush on the bottom. A lot of tall hard wood trees called Sal, craggy things. We are weaving our way through like it is an obstacle course. 11:05 JN ¿ how many elephants do we have today? (anil ¿ maybe 16) 16, 17, 18 11:20 JN - there is a line of 18 elephants divided into 2 lines ¿ we are moving towards the place that we think the rhinos are and then when we get there idea is to surround them and then shoot them, dart them (Anil) dart them with an anesthetic that knocks them out, then everybody jumps off and takes measurements and maybe take a blood sample and then they load them on to a sled, tow the sled on the back of a bulldozer, a front loader, to a truck where they put the rhino into a big wooden rate, basically and then drive it to another park. 13:00 ¿ there is something over there ¿ a rhino. You just see the ears, and there it is. 13:27 JN ¿ is this the animal we have come for? 14:12 rhinos technically are 14:29 JN ¿ rhinos are related to cows, but they look like tanks ¿ a land cow? No? I am wrong. 14:50 JN ¿ rhinos are herbivores. They eat crops. They eat plants. They eat grasses. There he goes he is trotting off ¿ gliding off ¿ disappearing in to the bushes. We don't want to charge. Once we spot the rhino the elephants spread off into formation. There are about 8 of them. Kind of a stand off. Each elephant has several people on top of it. 2 of the rhinos have shooters. Guys with shooters loaded with an extremely potent derivative of morphine called M99. Hit the rhino in the right place and you knock it out in 15 mins. Now he is snorting. Moving away from us right now. ¿ everytime we stop the spider decides to take a few bites. Move through the woods and elephant grabs pretty large tree branches. He just snaps them off so we can keep going¿..looking right at us. 17:29 JN ¿ the plan here is to kind of nudge the rhino out of the woods into an open area where ... (Notes truncated)
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- Cataloged
- 16 Nov 2009 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 16 Nov 2009 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 16 Nov 2009 - Ben Brotman