Filmmaker captures extraordinary footage of a desert elephant's birth

Desert elephants.
(Image credit: National Geographic for Disney/Robbie Labanowski)

While setting up his camera to film a herd of elephants, Bob Poole heard the animals begin to make loud noises, and knew the moment he was waiting for had arrived.

The Emmy Award-winning cinematographer was in Namibia, filming for National Geographic's new series, Secrets of the Elephants, premiering April 21. "I just jumped to my camera and started rolling," Poole told The Week. "All I saw were these legs, and I zoomed right into the middle of the action. It was just a pile of legs, and then they kind of separated and revealed this blob of soaking wet dark flesh." He was stunned, adding, "It was one of those things you just can't believe it's actually happening."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.