after a year they're drawn back to this place by the millions. these terrible better known as robots of all flying foxes frog to a little forest in zambia. it's thought to be the world's largest mammal migration. and one of africa's greatest unsolved mysteries. researchers from germany are trying to learn more about these mega bats to do that

they're hoping to catch a few of them with a net for scientists or setting up a trap at 2 am because it must be ready before sunrise although flying foxes are not turned off they can still see better by the day than at night because unlike other bats flying foxes don't and co-locate that use their sense of sight to navigate. as an instant isn't it's we must always keep the net off the ground and then open up the compartments so it hangs completely straight at the top so the bats don't see it going and it deflate them was it isn't seen that work in complete silence with no light and only night vision goggles them and then we hope will catch them but you never know. these are the images from the night vision goggles at night the flying foxes leave the trees where they've spent their day sleeping and set off in search of food mainly fruits and berries. the researchers wait for 2

hours and then they have a stroke of luck for flying foxes get caught in a nets. carefully they are untangle them. each of these sacks contains one flying fox base keeps them from getting injured until the researchers have time to examine them now in the early morning light it becomes evident why these animals are flying foxes. fascinating about this animal is that it's probably flown 2000 kilometers to get here to meet with millions of others but we don't know where it's come from nor if it will return to the same place or go elsewhere. but that could soon change for the 1st time researchers are trying to follow the mega bats flight path by attaching transmitters to them that arises look big but wait just a few grams. in an incredible feat of strength the flying foxes make

their way to zambia each year covering thousands of kilometers on seemingly fragile wings with their nightly search for food is impressive to fruit bats travel up to 200 kilometers each night in a few months time their scientists hope they'll know more about the exact right path of the largest mammal migration the flying fox is given a piece of apple to give it strength then it's allowed to return to the forest. the forest measures just 500 by 1000 meters its small size makes it hugely vulnerable. to gamekeeper's patrol here regularly to protect both the forest and the animals and these men have been doing this job for close to 30 years but they

still look forward to each november on the flying foxes come and stay for 4 weeks where once 200 species are flying fox but 8 have become extinct and another 22 are endangered. and humans are to blame for cutting down the forests and destroying their natural habitat. so this little forest in zambia is important to the animals survival hugh if they are continuing coming every year every year and north even if any between permits them to present. that you felt it. in my to say it will be very difficult for them finding a place if it's mainly poachers who are threatening that natural habitat the poachers keep setting fires around the little forest they figured with the trees gone grass will grow in this one attract antelopes goal then be easy prey in open

terrain theories and i there they go bending her at the for them with going to be he thought that through 3 i don't want them there for food booth fit this and that it can be there for him if that's related to benny in the box of my job with 4 dangerous are because this. using. criminals. they can even shoot at before seeing the same that's one of the risks of my job. says. while the coaches do pose a great danger to the flying foxes what they really are after is the animal whose tracks the 2 game keepers are now following. the antelope.

hunters could strike at any time. and colomba say that if they can prevent them from setting fires then they're flying. that's why it has sunk a national park relies on one sarka a man known here as the education officer. he pays regular visits to the surrounding villages because that's where most of the poachers live. people like joseph. is actually a farmer who grows peanuts and vegetables. yams are growing in these mounds of earth. a. while yet the education officer most of his harvest goes towards feeding his family so he has little left to sell. the. i had to pay my children's school

fees and hunting seemed like the easiest way. out snares and the next day i'd usually cotton and. i sell it so much children could go to school now. has 10 children to feed. and he's like many here driven to poach out of sheer debt . aeration not agreed. a community should see to it that they protect what we have been there so that we have a lot of people being employed in the back a lot of groups who would be buying from them when they are going to do a lot of funny and like the same time if we are going to have a lot of 20 scamming to the back they protect where the environment. farmers like joseph are now being told more efficient farming methods so they can better their incomes without resorting to poaching. after 3.

months has brought along an instructor. and his wife how to get rid of us and how to fertilize their fields naturally. it seems to be working well. joseph says is through with poaching he's even willing to put up with the flying foxes eating fruit from his trees. some villagers used to be. the trees and skin them. today that rarely happens though sometimes children still catch and kill their grandparents. but if you want to. even today the education officer still encounters prejudices and age old to booze

well flying foxes are concerned they want provided a reliable source of meat each november for families in the villages and myths and superstitions still surround these maggots. we pay a visit to the villages traditional healer. so that's why i want to. tell those i want to have. this wound is full of worries and sorrow she said. knows the villages concerns before she talks about the flying fox says she 1st wants to get a sense of what's troubling higgle in masaka to get an appointment with her you must agree to undergo treatment you know. some people burn flying foxes then they have the ashes tattooed under their skin in the hopes of acquiring the

mega bats abilities. like being able to see better at night. but of course that's not ok. if you if you're. in a shows or she doesn't use any flying foxes in her medicines she prescribed the powder which she says will help him with his biggest problem janice colleagues. take it morning noon and night 3 times a day. she says the powder is a purely remedy. yes but. people who make medicine from flying foxes catch them with a sticky substance that they smear on the branches of fruit trees the animals become attached to it like magnets that's what these sorcerers do but some of them also know how to call the animals then they come flying and let themselves be caught easily if that's how they do it. definitely and.

tradition is going to play a major role here even those who reject medicines made from flying foxes still seem to believe in sorceress in the magical powers of mag about and that doesn't make it any easier to protect the terror. has another appointment in the village today he says there is only one way to combat superstition by educating young people if the next generation understands that flying fox is don't possess supernatural powers that will help to ensure the animal survival. is 16 and one of the best pupils in the village i'm soccer takes a look at our homework and our grandmother beams with pride. salon won a place in

a scholarship program financed by the cassandra national park. and a guest or sitter for the students then from the start we can the salon was the place and. we selected and the deformation that she said when it is their mother died some time back their mother died when she was 3 years or that. i love going to school because i learn new things the city and i hope that one day i can. lead a life like people elsewhere and become a teacher or a doctor. that's why i like going to school most of all. other things that are just let them go through a salon school uniform tuition and books are now paid for how educating young people like us is an investment in natural conservation of. grasshoppers soup is on

the menu today salon's grandmother has 11 months to feed but things are looking up soon ceylon want her scholarship. to. be that if she actually finishes her education then maybe she can contribute some money to help me then i could hire a farm hand to help with the work and buy some food if you actually. go to the salon has become an environmental ambassador just like comment all you can on one soccer today he's a guest in salons class at school. a few of you say the soles of your grandparents will return as flying foxes. but the truth is they're god's creation and have no magical powers we know. now it's time for an expression when santa is taking so long and some classmates on

a trip to the national park. and it's an opportunity for us to see animals that we don't know yes he's big ones too i mean that and we learn why it's important to protect the bush and. most of the use have never been taken santa national park before though it's just 10 kilometers from their village . in the park there's a museum designed specially for visits from school groups on display our skulls of crocodiles hippos and of course bone. from flying foxes them mainly what the children are here to learn about educating schoolchildren is part of the fight against poaching and prejudice. gamekeeper colomba is here today to ensure the children's safety he's painting is hopes on this younger generation. when they grow may be born again decided to combine the

work with him dog which we which i'm doing. so i there maybe did in oregon it's a city. after 3 hours of theoretical instruction they're heading for the bush. children from other classes are also riding in the truck. a total of 40 young people profit from the car some kind of scholarship program. isn't the only one the park is training to be an environmental ambassador thank. my so the national park lies in a swamp if it's a natural habitat for animals that are rarely seen elsewhere in the region so rangers on soccer and colombia want to show the young people one of these creatures the extremely rare. tourists come from far and wide to see them

this is the 1st time days local children have cited one. so you can see appreciate it he said i think. it's well if you say so traditional and what is he to say so i think a story still that i'd be so interested in the day we had finished and i just got so out of. this that solange can hardly tab south away from the antelope so there's no time to waste so it's getting dark and a few kilometers away the 1st flying foxes have already woken up unless the words. i've got to see this.

day and night falls in the flying foxes take flight. 11 hours later i don't want his breaking and the fine folks colony returns just before sunrise. but scientists from germany are here watching them they hope that their research will help people to realize how vital these mega bats are to the ecosystem many people fear flying foxes because they're suspected of transmitting ebola virus and other diseases. of the max planck institute considers that unlikely. in their eating in vast quantities in many countries people use lead shot to shoot them down and pick up the bats while they're bleeding in biting if that was so

dangerous we'd be seeing constant outbreaks in hospitals but that's not the case. then they take the road out of the words. scientists hope to prove that flying foxes are necessary for the bush's very survival. thanks to their droppings flying foxes describes large amounts of seeds throughout the region promoting the growth of bushes and fruit trees. now the researchers hope to learn just how many of these mega bouts of flying around every night until now they've only been able to estimate their numbers the scientists a began to set up cameras around the forest in order to count them later they'll use specialized software to analyze the ideas. just. the great thing is it gives us much more than just their numbers so we can see when the winds coming from the north do they they're off myself and we want to find out

if they communicate with one another when they make these tornadoes is that tornadoes. if. joseph. i received another visit from the national parks education officer agle in one sarka he's here to show the farmer how he can more money without having to resort to poaching by extracting honey. the smoke from the fire is supposed to calm the beast the national park is training farmers like walia to become beekeepers some 4000 hives and plant. is still a bit unsure of himself he's only been a beekeeper for 2 weeks. his visit. here. of but in it as they are going to put in it that they help nobody need for research and if you. saw this with the support their population

overall the number of routes will be many are the same time they will be able to fit in that evening from there and. they have a sting from living here that this is working with our plants as he trusts in effectiveness of the smoke right away he gets 5 times but monsanto says that won't happen once the new beekeeper counts down. he heads home bob to the work of an education officer is never really done on the way he meets a man making charcoal in a pot of. many people do this here to and some extra cash on government. at the if i sell the charcoal my wife can use the money to buy fish for the family . but that doesn't convince a girl in months he knows that every tree felled by chunk old burners is one tree less for the ecosystem one less for flying foxes and other creatures to stakes

so many years for the truth and i thought i doubt the states i do friends that live in this would be rid of him that he would be destroyed. so they sometimes there's a model. that there's anything is there more that we have come up to sale and destroy our graphical brand 12. months are going to try is to persuade the charcoal burner to join the beekeepers in training her the man doesn't know convinced selling child call home is a quicker way to earn cash. was. back at the village school salons big moment has arrived. that i want to. caution you know she doesn't just tell her fellow pupils about flying foxes she also explains that you don't always have to chop down trees to make a fire and that sometimes the reflection from a light isn't enough to ignite one providing you use the right combustible material

salon recommends using dead leaves and rotten tree bark and national park awarded salon and her classmates an award for coming up with this idea. of what's out is a little too simple it's important to protect the environment especially the bush that's because the trees that produce oxygen for us and of course the bush is also a habitat for animals so it's a. huge hair going to save our flying foxes sing the children. down. the arab most of the schoolchildren in the village of long understood what some adults here still fail to comprehend that meat was. again capers moved beyond and colomba have discovered the site of another fire

located not far from the ranges camp the poachers are growing ever bolder fresh green grass is now running here but that's not the own. draw antelopes. in the mud even the animals that is going to why they like it they come when it is. off the bending they come with it did they come when if you don't they are on the ashes so as a last resort the gang keepers themselves chopped down bushes and trees so. this creates a fire break around the words to prevent a blaze from spreading to the forest where the flying foxes congregate they environmentalist's sacrifice trees to protect other trees. meanwhile night is falling and the flying foxes take to the skies again.

the german scientists as to mate that there are around 10000000 fruit bats here but they also believe that their numbers have been declining for years and that this could have dramatic consequences. by d. good enough because if you extrapolate it that means each night they spread millions of seeds and therefore plant trees and if that stopped happening it would be an incredible loss to the environment because the indians lies don't follow on the fate of the flying foxes lies in the hands of the people in the surrounding villages and salons generation promises to play a major role. each night she reads a few verses from the bible before she goes to sleep she says it teeth and written in the holy scripture that people must protect nature. and i'll tell you telling

people that about start have evil powerless but good for us some species even nice insects that would bite. salon says that gaunt created flying foxes and it's our responsibility to ensure the discreation survives she hopes to convince everyone to do that pot.

and acquire have to look around a fire a lot because. the bodies that fires the. series of experiments with the fire reveal that she spread the target previously. jenna lama and acquires face the world. tomorrow cheated.

on d.w. . these us. sold rifles should not be a museum up german arms manufacturer had cloned cars sold them illegally to mexico . bosses always seem to find ways to get around the german government it's all about. leave home exploits arms industry leaders in the talks. in 45 minutes on d w. like . oh. my god says love was good for the russians so. come here steve. so

many different walks of life some are pumping. oddly trying but all of them come straight from the heart looks for c.n.n. even when there's no money the illusion the march coup in trucks come. from the 1st glimpse of the logs to their final resting place the russians on t.w. documentary. and. singing 4 songs at the end not applause but new data about how singers could spread the coronavirus in the . home. and llamas are also helping coronavirus reset. that and more on this edition of the science show on d

w. well come to tomorrow to.