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Hunt to Survive | Hadza Tribe (Unchanged for 50,000 years) | Ruhi Çenet | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Hunt to Survive | Hadza Tribe (Unchanged for 50,000 years)
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This content provides an immersive, observational account of the Hadza people, a hunter-gatherer tribe in Tanzania, showcasing their traditional way of life, survival skills, and the challenges they face from modernization, while also serving as a plea for viewer support for the documentary's creators.
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The Hadza, the most primitive tribe living on earth.
They survive by hunting their food with bows and arrows
just like our ancestors did thousands of years ago.
Deep into the wild savannah, where uncertainty awaits behind every bush
they chase rock hyraxes, antelopes, and baboons.
The Hadza tribe lives life in its rawest form.
They drink muddy water, eat honey with larvas,
and even sometimes meat with animal waste.
For the next 3 days, I’ll be a part of their tribe and witness their way of life.
The Hadza tribe has been living near Lake Eyasi in Northern Tanzania for over 50,000 years
and only made first contact with the modern world around 150 years ago.
They speak Hadzane, a unique language with clicks.
The members took us to their chief.
- Sakoro?
- Ruhi.
Hunting skills are evident in the leather and furs they wear.
- What is this on your head?
- Baboon?
The salt in the tears burns the open wound,
and the baby learns not to cry when feeling the pain.
Here, a young group of people are crafting and repairing their gears for the next hunt.
It's a skill passed down through generations.
- Friend, what happened here?
They customize their arrows with unique patterns.
If someone's arrow gets lost and found,
that's how they know whose it is.
It also tells who shot the target.
On their bows, they have these unique patterns from some parts of the animals that they hunted.
This tells how talented and experienced the hunter is.
Also, they use bird feathers to keep the arrow stable during flight.
To make arrows, first, they take a piece of wood and carefully shave it.
It must be as light and straight as possible.
They are always controlling the progress and using their teeth to fix any curves.
- Which animal do you fear the most?
We've gathered before the break of dawn.
Sakoro is yelling to wake up the other hunters.
Please be aware that some scenes you're about to see may be sensitive.
We kindly ask you to watch the culture and lifestyle of the Hadza tribe
with respect and an open mind.
Our journey into the wild begins once everybody is ready.
The tribe is getting ready, let’s see what will happen.
Once the daylight breaks, we're going into the wilds with Sakoro, leading the way.
We've got around 10 hunting dogs with us, on the alert.
Hunters are carrying knives, bows, both poisoned and non-poisoned arrows.
Sakoro pointed this way; we are separating now.
Look there.
So we’ll follow this group.
One of our crew is following Sakoro and the dogs.
Throughout the hunt, we will separate into groups from time to time.
In this vast terrain, the dogs are our eyes and ears.
They are spreading out and searching over a wide area.
This strategy allows both dogs and us to cover more ground
and increase our chances of spotting animals.
This is how they drink water.
They use this muddy pond.
First, they blow and then drink.
Their immune system is strong enough to deal with the bacterias and parasites.
They don’t care whether it’s clean or not.
Dogs are starting to run.
There’s something there.
Run!
He’s gonna put the long stick inside that hole.
He’s trying to move the animal to come out.
The previous stick wasn’t long enough, now he’s making a longer one.
The dog is trying to dig a bigger hole to make it easier to grab the animal.
They’re giving up.
Time is precious, it’s time to move on.
The Hadza are nomadic people and they don’t store food or engage in farming.
They completely rely on hunting and gathering.
They're teaming up to catch the squirrel.
One hunter shakes the tree to confuse the animal and make it run towards the other hunter
They got it.
This is the first hunt of the day.
He put it inside his belt.
He’s looking for his arrow now.
Each arrow is so valuable for them.
It takes a lot of time to craft one.
The dogs are leading Sakoro to the spot.
He’s filling in the openings with grass to stop the animal from getting away.
We're changing our route because we cannot pass the river ahead.
Finally, it’s time to rest.
It's been 4 hours since we’ve been walking.
If you look at this tree, these things always get us.
They are sharp and they tear down our clothes.
The name is Acacia.
Sakoro keeps watch on the other hunters below.
The dogs caught this rock hyrax but they ate half of it.
Now Sakoro is sliding through the rocks to move downhill.
Thorns prick his legs.
He's cutting down the branches to clear his path.
In the meantime, the boy pushes his body into the gap between the rocks.
He completely disappears!
The boy who went inside this rock has been circling the entire area from one side to the other.
He and the dogs are searching for their prey in a quite tiny space.
They shot another rock hyrax down under this rock.
They saw something else there.
I think dogs are onto it now.
They’re trying to pull it out.
It’s a food that is ready but unreachable yet.
The one in the nest has been caught.
The animal is still alive.
He’s trying to end his way.
That’s a bad way to go, a bad way to go.
This is the third rock hyrax.
In just 50 years, the Hadza lost 90% of their lands to neighboring tribes cutting down trees
and driving away wildlife for crops and livestock.
The drop in animal population has made hunting and survival more difficult for them.
Their way of life is at risk.
Watch this.
He makes a fire in less than a minute just by spinning the arrow fast between his palms.
Now they take a break to consume a type of plant as they believe it boosts their vision and up hunting chances.
Even walking in this terrain is a challenge.
- I got stuck again.
- This way? The other way?
The boy is looking for a mongoose.
He’s checking every gap he can reach.
Don’t judge this is the way they live.
This is how our ancestors had survived.
It was a very tiring hunt, very tiring.
We walked 36,000 steps in just 7 hours while tracing animals in the mountains.
He says for the baboons, they prefer the bottom meat.
And which part?
Dogs are waiting patiently to get some pieces of the leftovers.
They start eating the hunted animal from the nails.
They don't waste any part of it.
They consume the meat along with soft bones.
You can hear the pops and cracks with each bite they take.
Let’s eat this part.
I'm honored that the Hadza people share their hunt with me,
which they got with a lot of effort.
But for those who really want to learn what rock hyrax meat is like,
it's honestly quite rubbery.
They spend their free time making new arrows to replace the ones they have lost during the hunt.
With each Hadza tribe consisting of around 30 people, the average lifespan is around 32 years.
It's actually because of the high rate of infant mortality.
Typically, a Hadza woman gives birth to four kids, but just one or two of them can survive.
Honey is their liquid gold.
Packed with energy and vital nutrients to keep them going strong in the wild,
it is the most consumed food in the tribe.
We’re near a baobab tree.
You see a hole inside that tree up there.
That’s where the honey is.
There are like thousands of bees inside this tree.
On one hand, another hunter is preparing a fire to make a smoking stick.
He is checking if these sticks are strong enough to carry a body of a person.
Now he puts the smoking stick into the hive to calm the bees for a short time.
This loud buzzing is coming from thousands of bees.
He still gets stung numerous times but bears the pain to get to the honey.
He must hurry because the bees will get out of the hive and we don't want to be chased by them.
There’s very little honey in it.
It’s mostly wax.
And there are some larvas inside.
Let me show you.
For the Hadza, honey is not just food but also their currency.
They exchange it for sharp metal tools, glass beads, tyre shoes and cornflour.
They don't use money, or even a developed numerical system for counting.
In Hadzane, one and two are the only numbers.
Even today, they don’t keep track of time.
Clocks and calendars have no place here.
They don’t have time-based events like birthdays or religious holidays.
- Does he know how old is he?
Nowadays, some of them have learned the official language of Tanzania and have borrowed numbers,
but most still can’t count up to 10.
To express numbers beyond five, like the 8 in this case, he needs to combine them.
- If I ask him 70, what would he say?
They use general terms to express larger quantities as they are too abstract for them.
- Do they always have that baboon hunting in their mind?
After sleeping for a couple of hours, we’re preparing for a bigger hunt at 04:00 am on the second day.
This is our second day in the camp and we will go for antelopes and baboons.
While we're tracking animals, one team member will be staying here and recording the camp life.
The men who aren't going hunting today are repairing their tools.
They are out of poison.
So first, this young boy and old man are walking a long road to get a bucket of water.
Busy with their daily tasks,
they still keep an eye out, taking advantage of any opportunity to hunt down something for today’s meal.
After several unsuccessful attempts, he finds a large snail on the way back to camp.
Do you see those mountains?
They say there are many hyenas there.
Young people do not much like the taste of snails and offer them to the elders.
In the past, when a tribe member grew old,
the young ones would hunt a large animal for them,
offering its meat as a final feast before abandoning the elders to starve to the end.
Nowadays, they take care of old members and share their hunts.
This bough belongs to the Desert Rose tree,
which possesses the game-changing ingredient for Hadza hunters in battling big catches.
They begin by cutting the bough into small pieces,
placing them all into a pan.
Cold water is poured over the pieces and let the mixture boil.
He dumps leaves to skim off any foam from the surface.
After removing the pieces, they let the mixture simmer down until it thickens.
With one last stir, he transfers the essence onto a rock and adds a splash of water.
Finally, he adds a bit of ash into it and mixes it by crushing it with a stone.
And there you have it; a black, sticky, poisonous paste.
He carefully coats the arrow tip with it.
Now this arrow is ready for action.
He rubs his hands on the grass to clean the poison.
While men search for meat and honey,
women gather fruits, vegetables and greens.
Right now they unearth roots and tubers by using digging sticks.
They are like nature's nutrient storage units.
Here she found a wild potato.
Living almost in isolation, Hadza women are not comfortable with being filmed by strangers.
Look, the pig dug here.
Another scratch on this tree.
They heard a crackle and are now stopping to figure out where the sound is coming from.
They’re gonna check if there’s anything to investigate or anything to hunt.
Nothing.
Because of the rain animals hide in their tunnels or shelters.
Do you see the nest of a very small animal called bush baby?
They are throwing rocks towards the tree to move the animal from where it hides.
It’s time to run.
There is no missing from here.
They are having fun.
The animal has nowhere else to go.
Look! Look!
Here is another one.
The boy has spotted another bushbaby nest.
It’s hiding inside.
After the second attempt, it becomes unable to move.
He's now clearing a path for himself to climb the tree.
The boy has started to climb up to the bush baby's nest.
He's getting closer and got it!
Right by the tail.
The bush baby's eyes are full of worry and it's tightly holding on its nest, trying to protect itself.
But no chance left for the little one.
It’s still alive.
He ends its life.
This animal is called bush baby.
They are mostly active during the nights.
We got them during their sleep.
On the head.
Oh, they got it from the eyes.
It went from here and came out from there.
Look at the hands of the animal.
They are related to monkeys.
Meanwhile, back at camp, two young ones are on the hunt.
He whistles just exactly like the bird to trick it.
So near, yet so far, he missed it.
But on the third try, he got one, right in the sky!
- What happened to this dog?
- He's got a lot of scratches.
- Baboon.
- Yeah.
Since the rain has stopped, animals now come out of their shelters.
And Hadza are ready to get them.
He got it.
A very beautiful bird.
Dogs seem so sure.
There’s definitely something.
Although they are often loyal, the dogs sometimes act faster than the Hadza hunters and take the hunt for themselves.
He’s trying to catch the bird with his hand.
Sakoro and the other hunters are exhausted now.
Taking a break from the hunt, we're heading back to camp.
- When was the last time he ate?
- What does he think about death?
- Where does he think he will go when he dies?
Young ones are still learning how to shoot an arrow.
And this is their class time.
Nice.
- What are their dreams for the future?
Yeah, they don’t have a future concept.
Early again, we're on day three with the Hadza tribe.
While we were sleeping, a group that had gone out for a night hunt has just made it back.
They got an antelope, it’s called dik-dik.
While we are getting closer to the baboons, those who stayed at the camp have started to build a hut.
Right now, two men are heading into the bush to collect suitable branches and leaves.
Baboons are smart animals, they keep moving around when they sense something.
They don’t like human contact.
We have to keep up, c’mon.
They went to ask if they saw any baboons around.
We are smart, but so they are.
They can sense that we are closing in.
We’ll keep searching them.
That means we've got to up our strategy.
It's all about staying one step ahead.
Those at the camp are now whistling to reach out to their friends who have gone on a morning honey hunt,
wishing to join in and eat wild honey.
Now they’re enjoying the sweet treat.
Now that all the materials are ready, it’s time to lay the foundation of the hut.
They start by bending and weaving the branches to create bars.
To make it durable, they wrap additional branches around it.
This cage-like structure forms the main part.
Then they surround the base with wild aloe vera plants.
And cover the top with leaves and grass.
For the finishing touches, they tuck some white flowers.
And there it is, within a few hours, a new home stands ready
gifted to this young dad and his family.
Baboons get up those baobab trees.
So we are checking each and every tree.
But our main objective is to get to those rocks.
They say that baboons are living there.
As we're walking along the path, we spot a group of rock hyraxes hiding into the rocks below.
They got all the 5 rock hyraxes now it’s time to move on for baboons.
They are hungrily eating the stomach, filled with an almost fecal-like mixture of half-digested food and stomach acids.
Sakoro says they've checked all the areas and couldn’t find any baboons.
But we’ll try our luck during the night.
Baboons can learn from past experiences, avoiding places where they have faced threats.
It seems they are abandoned here.
The Hadza are adapting their strategy.
They will chase baboons in another part of the region tonight.
Both predators and prey are constantly learning and adjusting.
It's like hide and seek but in a wild setup.
Now we’re on baboon hunting.
It’s getting darker.
Some of the tribe members detected where they are living.
They are on a tree.
We’ll be extra, extra silent.
Baboons are not nocturnal animals.
They’re active during the morning.
And at night, they sleep in trees where they are protected from predators,
mostly leopards, hyenas and humans.
I can’t see an inch in front of me.
We gotta stick close to the hunters;
I don’t want to accidentally be shot by a poisonous arrow.
We are heading deeper into baboon habitat.
I feel like we disturb the forest.
- Musa, what was that sound?
- Bigger one.
Baboons live in large groups known as troops.
As they look out for each other, alert the group to possible dangers and collectively defend against threats.
- They have seen one?
- Okay
They said they had seen one there.
We have to move, they are not here.
Baboons are extremely agile and can move quickly both on the ground and on the trees.
They’re trying to decide which way to go.
Be careful! It's slippery.
We're walking along the edge of the stream, and there's a steep slope down below.
It's so narrow, even for just one person to pass through.
It has been one and a half hours, we haven't seen any baboons.
They’re looking all over the place.
Our last night's shoot doesn't offer a capture of a successful hunt.
After three days of hard tracking and chasing,
the Hadza hunters returned home empty-handed, without a baboon for their family.
However, during the editing process,
we figured out a single frame reveals that a baboon was fleeing
by jumping from branch to branch when the lights went out.
They were aware of human's physical limitations,
and patiently waited for the lights to go out to quietly run away in the dark.
This unexpected twist shows survival doesn't always favor the strong or the smart;
it is about being the most adaptable.
We came to the end of baboon hunting.
We weren’t successful.
The animals probably heard us.
Hadza people live in this world as we did thousands of years ago.
One of the biggest threats to this community is of course modernization,
and losing this unique human culture.
They are like a window to the past.
They are the last of our first.
Hi, in the beginning of last month, my YouTube channel was hijacked,
and the hackers, the labor thieves deleted all of my videos from my YouTube channel.
12 years of my work was gone.
This sudden act caused my monthly earnings to drop to zero in just one click.
We have eventually saved all the videos from our backup files.
However, the algorithm no longer favors our recovered videos.
As a result, the number of views we get from these videos has significantly decreased, causing us to lose our passive income.
Because of this, our expected financial loss for the entirety of this year is at least $75,000
and we can't afford to fall that far behind.
We strive to increase our documentaries' quality in each video we make and try to broadcast in 14 different languages,
but in this economic equation we’re struggling to make our documentaries available worldwide.
Navigating the challenges of filming in remote and often hostile environments,
adds another layer of complexity to our endeavors.
To make it possible for you to watch this Hadza documentary, a team of 314 people contributed their efforts,
including 278 voice actors and 28 translators from 14 different countries,
along with 8 more crew members working in fieldwork and post-production.
It took us 3 months to finish this entire project.
If you’ve found any value in our documentaries and if you want us to be able to continue producing these documentaries,
we need you to now click the “Super Thanks” button below this video.
After clicking, you will see options regarding how much you can donate, or you can type a certain amount as you wish.
This is the first time I am asking for a one-time support from you.
This crisis we are experiencing right now poses an existential risk for the documentaries we are trying to produce.
Every donation from viewers like you helps us continue, grow, and create content that inspires and educates.
We have amazing projects this year.
For instance we plan to visit the Krubera cave with a scientific committee, the deepest cave in the world,
which is a region that has never been documented and extends 16 kilometers underground.
There is a high chance that we may discover some new animal species there that have never been discovered before.
I'll also be featuring a credit roll that includes your names in the community section of my YouTube channel
as my way of saying thank you and recognizing your contributions.
Before the hacking, our channel was going great,
we were about to go global but this sudden change cut us off immediately,
we’re out of competition now.
Only together, we can continue to exist.
Thank you for your sincere donations,
our channel hopefully will rise again.
Ruhi Çenet was here.
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