CNN Narrator: A 2vast 3wetland that 4stretches for almost 10,000 square kilometers, Bangweulu is one of Africa's most 5diverse 6ecosystems, home to some 7extraordinary species.

Steve Boyes: I've never been here to the Bangweulu swamps before and I'm 8intrigued. 9Abundant bird life, thousands, tens of thousands of lechwe. You can hear the hippos calling, you have the hyenas coming around. This system has a lot to teach us.

CNN Narrator: Call to Earth guest editor Steve Boies and his 10expedition team have been joined on the water by 11ornithologist and 12conservationist Maggie Hirschauer, who has been living in the 13swamps for three years, studying and 14rehabilitating one of its most iconic species. 

Standing up to five feet tall, with an eight-foot wingspan and a large, clog-shaped 15beak that gives them their name, the Shoebill is one of the strangest-looking birds on the planet. Listed as 16vulnerable by the IUCN, Bangweulu is the 17southernmost population remaining in the world, with no more than 215 18individuals surviving in these wetlands.