Beverly + Dereck Joubert: Life lessons from big cats

77,821 views ・ 2010-12-20

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00:15
Beverly Joubert: We are truly passionate
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about the African wilderness
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and protecting the African wilderness,
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and so what we've done
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is we've focused on iconic cats.
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And I know,
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in the light of human suffering and poverty
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and even climate change,
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one would wonder,
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why worry about a few cats?
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Well today we're here
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to share with you a message that we have learned
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from a very important and special character --
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this leopard.
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Dereck Joubert: Well, our lives have basically been
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like a super long episode of "CSI" --
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something like 28 years.
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In essence, what we've done
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is we've studied the science, we've looked at the behavior,
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we've seen over 2,000 kills
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by these amazing animals.
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But one of the things that science really lets us down on
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is that personality,
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that individual personality that these animals have.
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And here's a prime example.
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We found this leopard in a 2,000-year-old
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baobab tree in Africa,
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the same tree that we found her mother in
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and her grandmother.
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And she took us on a journey
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and revealed something very special to us --
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her own daughter, eight days old.
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And the minute we found this leopard,
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we realized that we needed to move in,
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and so we basically stayed with this leopard
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for the next four-and-a-half years --
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following her every day,
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getting to know her,
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that individual personality of hers,
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and really coming to know her.
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Now I'm destined
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to spend a lot of time
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with some unique,
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very, very special,
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individualistic
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and often seductive female characters.
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(Laughter)
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Beverly's clearly one of them,
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and this little leopard, Legadema, is another,
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and she changed our lives.
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BJ: Well we certainly did spend a lot of time with her --
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in fact, more time than even her mother did.
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When her mother would go off hunting,
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we would stay and film.
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And early on, a lightning bolt hit a tree
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20 paces away from us.
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It was frightening,
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and it showered us with leaves and a pungent smell.
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And of course, we were stunned for a while,
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but when we managed to get our wits about us,
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we looked at it and said, "My gosh,
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what's going to happen with that little cub?
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She's probably going to forever associate
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that deafening crash with us."
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Well, we needn't have worried.
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She came charging out of the thicket straight towards us,
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sat next to us, shivering,
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with her back towards Dereck, and looking out.
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And actually from that day on,
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she's been comfortable with us.
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So we felt that that day
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was the day that she really earned her name.
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We called her Legadema,
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which means, "light from the sky."
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DJ: Now we've found these individualisms
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in all sorts of animals,
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in particular in the cats.
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This particular one is called Eetwidomayloh,
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"he who greets with fire,"
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and you can just see that about him, you know -- that's his character.
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But only by getting up close to these animals
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and spending time with them
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can we actually even reach out
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and dig out these personal characters that they have.
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BJ: But through our investigation,
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we have to seek the wildest places in Africa.
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And right now this is in the Okavango Delta
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in Botswana.
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Yes, it is swamp. We live in the swamp in a tent,
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but I must tell you, every day is exhilarating.
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But also, our hearts are in our throats
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a huge amount of the time,
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because we're driving through water,
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and it's an unknown territory.
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But we're really there
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seeking and searching and filming the iconic cats.
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DJ: Now one of the big things, of course,
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everybody knows that cats hate water,
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and so this was a real revelation for us.
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And we could only find this by pushing ourselves,
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by going where no sane person should go --
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not without some prompting, by the way, from Beverly --
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and just pushing the envelope,
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going out there, pushing our vehicle, pushing ourselves.
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But we've managed to find that these lions
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are 15 percent bigger than any others,
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and they specialize in hunting buffalo in the water.
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BJ: And then of course, the challenge
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is knowing when to turn around.
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We don't always get that right,
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and on this particular day,
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we seriously underestimated the depth.
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We got deeper and deeper,
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until it was at Dereck's chest-height.
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Well then we hit a deep depression,
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and we seriously submerged the vehicle.
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We actually managed to drown
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two million dollars' worth of camera gear.
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We drowned our pride, I must tell you,
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which was really serious,
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and we seized the engine.
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DJ: And of course, one of the rules that we have in the vehicle
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is that he who drowns the vehicle
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gets to swim with the crocodiles.
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(Laughter)
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You will notice also that all of these images here
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are taken from the top angle by Beverly --
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the dry top angle, by the way.
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(Laughter)
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But all the places we get stuck in really have great views.
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And it wasn't a moment, and these lions came back towards us,
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and Beverly was able to get a great photograph.
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BJ: But we truly do
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spend day and night
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trying to capture unique footage.
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And 20 years ago,
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we did a film called "Eternal Enemies"
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where we managed to capture
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this unusual disturbing behavior across two species --
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lions and hyenas.
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And surprisingly, it became a cult film.
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And we can only work that out
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as people were seeing parallels
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between the thuggish side of nature
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and gang warfare.
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DJ: It was amazing, because you can see that this lion
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is doing exactly what his name,
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Eetwidomayloh, represents.
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He's focused on this hyena,
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and he is going to get it.
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(Animal sounds)
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But that's, I think, what this is all about,
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is that these individuals have these personalities and characters.
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But for us to get them, not only do we push ourselves,
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but we live by certain rules of engagement,
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which mean we can't interfere.
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This sort of behavior has been going on
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for three, four, five million years,
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and we can't step in and say, "That's wrong, and that's right."
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But that's not always easy for us.
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BJ: So, as Dereck says,
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we have to work through extremes --
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extreme temperatures, push ourselves at night.
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Sleep deprivation is extreme.
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We're on the edge
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through a large part of the time.
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But, for 10 years, we tried to capture
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lions and elephants together --
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and never ever managed
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until this particular night.
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And I have to tell you
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that it was a disturbing night for me.
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I had tears rolling down my cheeks.
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I was shaking with anxiety,
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but I knew that [I had] to capture something
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that had never been seen before, had never been documented.
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And I do believe you should stay with us.
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DJ: The amazing thing about these moments --
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and this is probably a highlight of our career --
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is that you never know how it's going to end.
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Many people believe, in fact,
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that death begins in the eyes, not in the heart,
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not in the lungs,
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and that's when people give up hope,
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or when any life form gives up hope.
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And you can see the start of it here.
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This elephant, against overwhelming odds,
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simply gives up hope.
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But by the same token,
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you can get your hope back again.
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So just when you think it's all over, something else happens,
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some spark gets into you,
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some sort of will to fight --
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that iron will that we all have,
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that this elephant has,
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that conservation has, that big cats have.
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Everything has that will to survive,
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to fight, to push through that mental barrier
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and to keep going.
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And for us, in many ways,
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this elephant has become
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a symbol of inspiration for us,
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a symbol of that hope as we go forward in our work.
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(Applause)
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Now back to the leopard.
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We were spending so much time with this leopard
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and getting to understand her individualism,
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her personal character,
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that maybe we were taking it a little bit far.
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We were perhaps taking her for granted,
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and maybe she didn't like that that much.
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This is about couples working together,
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and so I do need to say that within the vehicle
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we have quite strict territories, Beverly and I.
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Beverly sits on the one side
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where all her camera gear is,
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and I'm on the other side where my space is.
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These are precious to us, these divides.
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BJ: But when this little cub saw
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that I had vacated my seat
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and climbed to the back to get some camera gear,
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she came in like a curious cat
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to come and investigate.
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It was phenomenal, and we felt grateful
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that she trusted us to that extent.
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But at the same time, we were concerned
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that if she created this as a habit
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and jumped into somebody else's car,
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it might not turn out the same way --
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she might get shot for that.
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So we knew we had to react quickly.
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And the only way we thought we could
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without scaring her
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is to try and simulate a growl like her mother would make --
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a hiss and a sound.
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So Dereck turned on the heater fan in the car --
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very innovative.
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DJ: It was the only way for me to save the marriage,
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because Beverly felt she was being replaced, you see.
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(Laughter)
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But really and truly, this was how
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this little leopard was displaying
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her individual personality.
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But nothing prepared us
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for what happened next in our relationship with her,
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when she started hunting.
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BJ: And on this first hunt, we truly were excited.
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It was like watching a graduation ceremony.
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We felt like we were surrogate parents.
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And of course, we knew now
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that she was going to survive.
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But only when we saw the tiny baby baboon
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clinging to the mother's fur
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did we realize that something very unique
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was taking place here with Legadema.
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And of course, the baby baboon was so innocent,
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it didn't turn and run.
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So what we watched
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over the next couple of hours
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was very unique.
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It was absolutely amazing
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when she picked it up to safety,
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protecting it from the hyena.
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And over the next five hours,
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she took care of it.
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We realized that we actually don't know everything,
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and that nature is so unpredictable,
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we have to be open at all times.
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DJ: Okay, so she was a little bit rough.
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(Laughter)
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But in fact,
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what we were seeing here was interesting.
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Because she is a cub wanting to play,
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but she was also a predator needing to kill,
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and yet conflicted in some way,
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because she was also an emerging mother.
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She had this maternal instinct,
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much like a young girl on her way to womanhood,
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and so this really took us to this new level
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of understanding that personality.
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BJ: And of course, through the night, they lay together.
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They ended up sleeping for hours.
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But I have to tell you --
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everybody always asks, "What happened to the baby baboon?"
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It did die,
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and we suspect it was from the freezing winter nights.
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DJ: So at this stage, I guess,
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we had very, very firm ideas
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on what conservation meant.
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We had to deal with these individual personalities.
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We had to deal with them with respect
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and celebrate them.
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And so we, with the National Geographic, formed the Big Cats Initiative
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to march forward into conservation,
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taking care of the big cats that we loved --
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and then had an opportunity to look back over the last 50 years
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to see how well we had all collectively been doing.
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So when Beverly and I were born,
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there were 450,000 lions,
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and today there are 20,000.
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Tigers haven't fared any better --
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45,000
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down to maybe 3,000.
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BJ: And then cheetahs have crashed
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all the way down to 12,000.
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Leopards have plummeted
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from 700,000
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down to a mere 50,000.
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Now in the extraordinary time
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that we have worked with Legadema --
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which is really over a five-year period --
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10,000 leopards were legally shot
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by safari hunters.
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And that's not the only leopards
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that were being killed through that period.
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There's an immense amount of poaching as well,
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and so possibly the same amount.
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It's simply not sustainable.
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We admire them,
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and we fear them,
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and yet, as man, we want to steal their power.
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It used to be the time
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where only kings wore a leopard skin,
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but now throughout rituals and ceremonies,
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traditional healers and ministers.
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And of course, looking at this lion paw
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that has been skinned,
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it eerily reminds me
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of a human hand,
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and that's ironic, because their fate is in our hands.
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DJ: There's a burgeoning bone trade.
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South Africa just released some lion bones onto the market.
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Lion bones and tiger bones look exactly the same,
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and so in a stroke, the lion bone industry
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is going to wipe out all the tigers.
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So we have a real problem here,
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no more so than the lions do, the male lions.
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So the 20,000 lion figure that you just saw
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is actually a red herring,
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because there may be 3,000 or 4,000 male lions,
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and they all are actually
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infected with the same disease.
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I call it complacency --
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our complacency.
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Because there's a sport, there's an activity going on
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that we're all aware of, that we condone.
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And that's probably because we haven't seen it
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like we are today.
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BJ: And you have to know
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that, when a male lion is killed,
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it completely disrupts the whole pride.
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A new male comes into the area
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and takes over the pride,
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and, of course, first of all kills all the cubs
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and possibly some of the females that are defending their cubs.
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So we've estimated
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that between 20 [and] 30 lions are killed
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when one lion is hanging on a wall
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somewhere in a far-off place.
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DJ: So what our investigations have shown
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is that these lions are essential.
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They're essential to the habitat.
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If they disappear,
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whole ecosystems in Africa disappear.
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There's an 80-billion-dollar-a-year
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ecotourism revenue stream into Africa.
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So this is not just a concern about lions;
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it's a concern about communities in Africa as well.
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If they disappear, all of that goes away.
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But what I'm more concerned about in many ways
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is that, as we de-link ourselves from nature,
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as we de-link ourselves spiritually
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from these animals,
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we lose hope,
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we lose that spiritual connection,
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our dignity, that thing within us
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that keeps us connected to the planet.
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BJ: So you have to know, looking into the eyes
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of lions and leopards right now,
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it is all about critical awareness.
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And so what we are doing,
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in February, we're bringing out a film called "The Last Lion,"
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and "The Last Lion" is exactly
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what is happening right now.
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That is the situation we're in --
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the last lions.
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That is, if we don't take action and do something,
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these plains will be completely devoid
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of big cats,
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and then, in turn, everything else will disappear.
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And simply, if we can't protect them,
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we're going to have a job protecting ourselves as well.
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DJ: And in fact, that original thing that we spoke about
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and designed our lives by --
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that conservation was all about respect
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and celebration --
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is probably true. That's really what it needs.
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We need it. We respect and celebrate each other
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as a man and a woman, as a community
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and as part of this planet,
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and we need to continue that.
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And Legadema?
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Well we can report, in fact,
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that we're grandparents.
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(Laughter)
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BJ/DJ: Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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