Big Cats 24/7 (2024) s02e03 Episode Script

1
The Okavango Delta in Botswana
We are in a pristine
environment right now.
one of Africa's last wildernesses
The magnitude of life here
is unparalleled.
and it's a haven for Africa's big cats
lion,
cheetah,
and leopard.
Big cat country.
Armed with the latest filming technology,
the "Big Cats 24/7" team is following
individual big cats for 6 months
This is a unique opportunity to follow
these cats round the clock.
through the day
I used to think I'd have
a fair fight with a lion.
I'm not so sure now. Ha!
and the night
We've got the most sophisticated
thermal imaging technology.
capturing their behavior 24 hours a day.
I have never seen anything like this.
Epic!
They're locking jaws.
She's clawed him in the face!
The girls are driving Dimo away.
These females might have done it.
She's contact calling.
Conflict looks over for now.
That was insane. That was so insane.
Rea, have you got eyes on these cubs?
Nah, that's a negative.
Lionesses have no idea
where the cubs are.
Lion mums Matho
Tsebe
and Naledi are searching
for their 9 young cubs
scattered in the chaos of
the fight with the Rogue Boys.
I'm just really scared just to see
beyond the long grass and see a dead cub.
Please tell me that's not happened.
It's a cub. It's a cub right here.
Some cubs are over there.
Right. Let's count these cubs.
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8. Got 8.
We're missing one cub.
This is not cool.
Rea, have you got eyes on this ninth cub?
That is a negative.
Naledi is just nonstop contact calling.
I feel for her.
It's Naledi's
smallest cub that's missing.
Please, please, please,
please, please, please be OK.
Be OK.
There's the cub.
Ha!
What a relief.
The cub is trailing pretty far behind.
It's not over for these mums and cubs.
The 3 younger
Rogue Boys have circled back.
This cub is alone.
He's literally within
50 meters to these 3 Rogue Boys.
Intruder male lions are responsible
for a quarter of cub deaths.
This is very dangerous.
What?!
One of the mums has come back.
But Naledi is not
leaving her cub behind
and Matho and Tsebe are joining.
It's like a gang war here.
I've never seen anything like this.
They're trying to settle this
through growls.
Lions typically will avoid
confrontations.
If you have an injury, it could be fatal.
Without their leader Dimo
The battle's over.
the 3 youngsters are
finally backing down.
These Rogue Boys seem to be heading
to the direction they came from.
These are some serious women bosses.
Anna. I can't believe it? Ha!
They have successfully
fought off these Rogue Boys.
Yes! Great news. I'm so relieved.
Matho, Tsebe, and Naledi have
saved their cubs for now
Since Big Toe and Madumo
have disappeared,
they're leaving their lionesses
to just do all the work.
but with the
Rogue Boys still in the area,
the mums and their cubs
remain vulnerable.
It just feels like this territory
is completely up for grabs.
The Xudum Pride has been apart for weeks,
now scattered across its
250-square kilometer territory
in the Okavango Delta.
There are lots of players
who are just moving in.
Who knows who this territory is for now?
It's total chaos.
The abundance of prey
brought by the annual flood
is drawing more predators in
putting all the big cats on edge
especially these young mothers.
There's so many cubs to protect.
Without Big Toe
and Madumo to help them
Mums working together is essential.
Matho, Naledi, and Tsebe must rejoin
the other mums in the pride
for protection
We just really,
really need safety in numbers.
but first, they need to find them.
I think I've just seen
a glimpse of a leopard.
Tristen and Brad are on the
trail of leopard mum Lediba.
Mum looks happy.
Cub looks happy.
Look. This little cub is very playful.
I think she spotted an impala.
Yeah.
The little cub's just tried
to run an impala.
It scared everything.
It was too cute!
Any opportunity,
these cats are ready to go,
and even from the age of 4 months,
they seem to think that they
can take down adult impalas.
That was absolutely adorable.
"Look, Mum! Look what I tried to do.
"Did you see me?
I nearly caught one!"
Heh! Yes. Mummy and cub.
After losing one of her cubs
Might get a little bit of suckling here.
Lediba is now focusing
on keeping this one alive.
I would really like to see her starting
to provide a lot more meat for the cub.
My sense is that she should
be getting a lot
more than she is at the moment.
To feed them both, Lediba needs to catch
something every 2 to 3 days.
Lediba's just gone up,
so suckling has stopped.
Lediba's on the move.
Which means she
must leave her cub unprotected
in its nursery to search for food.
She's covering a lot of ground,
pushing hard.
She's just bumped into the baboon troop.
Haven't seen her.
She is sneaking away
as quietly as possible.
Baboons will alert
any prey to Lediba's presence.
Amazing.
She's virtually going
underneath the front of my car.
Trist, she's now heading back
through the forest.
Lediba's finally found something to hunt.
Nice, big male reedbuck.
You don't know where the cat is
because she's so
well-camouflaged and hidden.
Less than 1 in 5
leopard hunts are successful.
This reedbuck no idea that a
leopard's coming up behind him.
Lediba's best chance is to stalk
within 5 meters of her prey.
Reedbuck's moving.
Jeez, that was close. Unlucky.
She just just missed it.
What? What is going on?
You go on her.
I'll go and have a look.
A little bit of a noise and
alarm calling going on here.
There's definitely
something else going on.
We've got a male lion underneath a tree.
This is really, really scary.
She's moving straight
towards him right now.
She hasn't seen him.
She's gonna pop up
right in front of him there.
If the male lion can catch
her, he will kill her.
It's just what predators do
to each other.
She doesn't see him,
but she's right in front of him.
She's very lucky this guy
didn't decide to charge her
because that could have been a horrible,
horrible ending.
She's being brave.
Coming straight down the tree.
Lediba is making a hasty retreat.
That was a bit close for comfort.
This lone male lion is
not one of the Rogue Boys
but yet another newcomer to the area.
Right next to the front of the flood.
Greg is with the mums
and young cubs moving south.
as one of the biggest,
most dominant prides
in the whole Okavango,
we've become quite
accustomed to these lions
really ruling the roost here,
and it looks like that's all changing.
I've never seen a pride take cover.
Roger that.
I'm following a couple of nomadic males.
Heading towards the mums
With the arrival of the flood,
we're seeing concentration of big cats.
Gordon has discovered more intruders
There's a bit of a melting pot.
taking the total
in the area to at least 7.
These lions have
probably battled their way
around the Okavango
for the last couple of years
with that singular mission
of finding somewhere
they can call their own.
Now, what in the hell is happening?
We've got two bigger subadult
males chasing directly after Dimo.
And now just a kilometer away,
Rea has spotted the Rogue Boys'
leader Dimo
What's going on here?
I mean, he's all alone.
without backup.
They're coming straight to us!
They're coming straight to us!
He's being pursued by even
more intruding male lions.
I can't even recall how many
groups of males have popped up.
They've got Dimo, they've got him.
This is so close!
This is directly in front of us!
They're right here!
Look. They're biting him!
I've never seen this before.
This is a battle of intruders
versus other intruders.
Dimo came into this territory,
and we cast him as a bad guy.
Can't help but feel
a little sorry for him now.
Badly injured
This might be the last time we see Dimo.
Dimo is leaving.
It's really hard to keep track
of all these lions we're seeing.
With no dominant males,
the Xudum Pride territory
is now a battleground.
Very worrying for the pride.
Lionesses are having to protect
the cubs on their own.
Matho, Naledi, Tsebe,
and their cubs are all in danger.
Banding together is
definitely gonna help.
Yeah. We got the lions moving.
They want to move their cubs to safety.
They must find the other mums of
the pride as soon as possible.
Hey, Pobe. How are you doing?
How are your cubs?
Anna is with Pobe
the cheetah and her two cubs.
They're just growing day by day.
These two are super lucky
because at the moment
their mum is doing all of the hard work.
There they are.
Kea
Whee!
and Bo have made it to 6 months old.
Super cute to see.
The world is just their
playground at the moment.
Every single tree is like a jungle gym.
They're now starting to learn the
skills to survive on their own.
These cubs are practicing
their tree climbing.
This is essential learning for them
because climbing trees helps them
when they need to get off the ground,
but it gives a really good viewpoint
above all of this long grass.
Cheetahs can see movement
up to two kilometers away
By climbing trees,
they can scan for prey,
but they can also scan for predators.
Being able to spot danger
from afar and escape it
Kea is at the top of a tree.
is crucial with
so many lions now in the area.
Heh.
She's looking a little bit
uncomfortable up there right now.
Dear. She's got herself
into a bit of a situation here.
She's trying to go down backwards.
And she made it down.
Looked quite stressful.
Their wonderful springy legs
coming into their own.
I do feel like they're
slowly growing into their legs.
Every day, they're getting
more used to their bodies,
and you can see that that
is really helping them
in their speed and agility,
their tree climbing, all of it.
What looks like play is just
essentially key training for them
because we can't forget that cheetahs are
at the bottom of the pecking order.
They're always looking
over their shoulders.
Cheetah cubs leave
their mothers at 18 months old.
It's amazing how much
they have to develop
in such a short amount of time.
To be ready to go it alone,
Kea and Bo still have a lot to learn.
That is the life of a cheetah.
They have to develop so much faster
than the other cats in the delta.
It's begun.
Lediba is well and truly
on her mission tonight.
The cub's den is only
a couple hundred meters away.
With her cub hidden nearby,
Lediba is hunting again.
Looks like she's managed to sight out
some impala moving
through the floodplain.
This might be her change in luck.
She's certainly very hungry,
and it looks like she's gonna give this
as good of a go as possible.
She's got herself into
a pretty amazing position here.
I can hear something barking.
What the hell, man?
She was in the perfect position.
What?
. Lion.
She doesn't want to even try
and compete with a lion.
They're just too big.
There's lions literally everywhere.
Lediba's gone
into some thicker cover now.
The influx of new lions into the area
and I'm losing visual of her.
is affecting
all of the resident big cats.
She's bolted off into the sage ridge,
and I can't keep up
with her through there.
It's now been 3 days since
the team last saw Lediba eat.
Hopefully for Lediba,
she manages to get herself a meal.
It's morning, but Tristen and Rea
are being held in camp
by a curious visitor.
Got a little bit of a blockage
here on our way to the vehicles.
Mr. Ellie's enjoying our lawn.
This is supposed to be
our badminton field.
There's a lot of elephants around.
I'm just seeing, like,
elephants over there.
We probably get elephants
walking through camp
4 or 5 times a day.
You can see what the elephant
does when he takes the grass.
He pulls it out with his trunk,
then he shakes it side to side,
removing that sand and the dust off,
not to hurt his teeth,
and then he eats it.
Having a elephant right
literally in the middle
of a camp is always a reminder
just how wild this place is.
Definitely something special.
When we've got a bit of a speed
bump like this on our way out,
best thing to do is appreciate it.
We shouldn't forget at the end
of the day this is their land.
We're just visitors.
Some people drive a car to work,
and you've got to watch out
for an accident.
When I get out of my room in the morning,
I've got to make sure
I don't bump into him.
Mr. Ellie's gone.
Time to get back to work.
I do feel like today is
a major school day.
Bush school for cheetah cubs Kea and Bo
is continuing with mum Pobe.
Pobe looks uninterested
in the actual impala.
It kind of feels like it's actually
just more about the lesson.
That felt like she was teaching the cubs
how to run or how to accelerate.
Yeppo. Go, Anna.
Pobe seems to be on a mission to
show them a few little hunting skills.
Roger that.
The cubs are learning
another vital lesson.
We've got Pobe's cubs
here imitating their mum.
They think they're on a serious hunt.
These are skills which
will help them in the long term.
To survive on their own,
Kea and Bo must learn
how to run down prey.
Got wildebeest just over
in that direction.
And the cubs are over
straight ahead of me.
They're moving straight towards them.
Definitely got their ears down.
Running, running, running, running.
It's pretty amazing to see the difference
from just a month ago when they were shy
and never take the initiative.
Fully grown wildebeest are 10
times heavier than Kea and Bo.
Bet the wildebeest are thinking,
"What is going on?
Why is this tiny cheetah
trying to run at us?"
They are staring at the zebra.
They've got missile locks on their eyes.
But Kea is not giving up.
What? She's so fast.
At this age, cheetah cubs can run
nearly 80 kilometers per hour.
That is nuts.
Heh heh. No. OK.
Every failed attempt is a lesson.
It'll be another year
before they can hit top speed.
Getting that little practice
how to approach prey gives
them a good sense
of from what distance will prey see you.
They definitely haven't quite learned
the element of surprise yet.
There's a hyena over here
that has picked up
the scent of something.
This has got the potential to go really,
really wrong.
I don't know how the cubs are
gonna respond to this.
A single spotted hyena is a challenge.
What on earth is Kea doing?
She's going straight towards the hyena.
Kea is standing her ground.
Super brave.
Take that, hyena!
What the hell?
There are 3 hyenas.
3 is a scary number for them.
But 3 hyenas together
It's going in,
it's going in, it's going in!
could be deadly for the cubs.
They were running from the hyenas.
Kea's running.
Both the cubs
and Pobe have been chased away.
This is not great news because
the cubs have been separated.
One cub has found Pobe.
The other one has taken refuge up a tree,
so their tree climbing skills,
they are coming in
more useful than, I think,
they probably thought.
Thank God for that. Yay!
Kea and Bo are unscathed.
These cubs are having
a lesson after lesson,
and I think they've just learned
a very important one,
which is don't mess with hyenas.
We've got Matho, Naledi,
and Tsebe here with their cubs.
It's gonna get thick up ahead.
Sets and Gordon are on the night shift.
They've wandered so far tonight.
Matho, Tsebe,
and Naledi are still searching
for the other pride mums.
This is miles away.
This is right down
as far south as I've ever been.
Naledi and Matho have gone up a tree.
Very quiet. They can hear a lot
better if they're off the ground.
Lions use sound to find each other
from up to 8 kilometers away.
I think they've heard something.
They've locked on to something behind me.
But it's not the other pride mums.
Those zebra 100%.
Yeah. They're interested.
This is a chance to feed their cubs.
OK. It's gonna to be tricky,
but they've started to spread out.
Matho is going straight towards them.
Tsebe has gone wide to the left.
Naledi has disappeared off to the right.
OK. The hunt is on.
I lost her.
They got something.
They're taking a zebra down.
That is a big cat bundle.
It's down. They've taken it down.
The cubs are digging in.
Quite some prize.
After days on the move
Just gonna pop the drone up.
this is a welcome meal.
They need to keep quiet,
keep this a secret
and will not alert
other cats in the area.
Hey, Gordon.
Did you copy that?
Yeah, I did.
It's kind of over my right-hand shoulder.
You know,
the scent of this carcass is wafting
straight towards me,
so it's probably carrying far and wide.
Yeah, we might be in for a surprise.
Lions have to eat fast
because you never know
who wants to come along
and pinch that meal from you.
I can hear them.
I saw something moving
behind them in the tree line.
Yeah.
So it's a female.
I can't tell who that is.
Matho is up.
She's being extra cautious.
They're chasing.
It's clearly not one of the
other Xudum Pride Lionesses.
Whoever they are, they're not welcome.
Heading back.
They're just passing behind the car.
No.
What's going on?
More lions coming in.
That is such a menacing sound.
All of these lions just
trying to intimidate
and push the girls off the kill.
The mums have traveled so far
from their own territory
they've run into another pride.
There are 5 in total. They are calling.
They are the ones calling.
These newcomers aren't after the cubs.
There's more.
They want a free meal.
There's a big fight erupting.
It is massive.
Their numbers are not
working in their favor.
They're now being chased off.
The kill is not worth it.
The zebra carcass has been abandoned.
It's just not worth defending.
They've taken the cubs, and they're off.
That was enough for them
to pull out of here.
The mums and cubs have lost their meal
It is quite thick here.
Just lost visual of the lions
and disappeared into the scrub.
Next morning
Here they are.
We've got a whole pile of lions.
Greg has found Matho, Tsebe, and Naledi
on the edge of pride territory.
A couple of the lionesses are getting up.
I can see some blood.
Some of them look like they
really did take a beating?
Naledi looks like she got
seriously hurt last night.
She's got a lot of lot of open wounds.
Cuts under her leg. Cuts on her face.
Poor thing.
Matho has just gotten up,
and she's walking across.
She's got some serious blood
underneath her front leg.
She's been hurt.
Very uncommon for us to see Matho turned
turned in a confrontation.
It looks like last night these
lionesses met their match.
Her and Naledi both have wounds
on the back of their rump,
which means that
they were bitten from behind.
Pbbb. One hell of a scrap.
I mean, not one of them is unscathed.
From what I can tell,
all of the cubs are OK,
so the mums must have put up
one hell of a fight,
but we've got a lot of cubs
that haven't eaten.
It's not a good place to be.
Matho, Tsebe, and Naledi
cannot afford
another attack from intruders.
It's a pivotal point
for the leading lionesses
to make a decision on what to do here.
Safety with the other mums of the pride
has never been more urgent.
They've got intruders
all over their territory,
Big Toe, Madumo nowhere to be
found, so they've been squeezed.
It's gonna be very interesting to see
how they navigate their way out of it.
Brad has found Lediba.
Cats have unbelievable expressions.
but she's not alone.
Looking at this lion with utter disgust.
The lone intruder male
has interrupted Lediba's
plans to eat again.
It's just sad that she's gone
through all this effort to make a kill,
and it gets stolen by a lion.
She really needed a meal.
It must be torturous
for her to just sit there
and watch a male lion eat her carcass
and not be able to do anything about it.
I think he's done eating for now.
He's burying the entrails,
trying to conceal the scent.
He's moving
and he's done.
Lediba's started to move
around a little bit.
She's watching that carcass.
I think she's thinking about
taking a piece back here.
I think there's a cub there.
Yeah. Her cub's at the base of the tree.
It looks like Lediba brought
her hungry cub to eat
This is crazy.
before the lion pushed them off.
This is a particularly
dangerous situation.
That cub just has to stay concealed.
In his resting,
Lediba has spotted an opportunity.
She's being very careful.
OK. She's on the ground.
I admire her determination to
try and get some of this back.
I think she's getting desperate, too.
This is a valuable meal.
I think she's gonna risk it all.
Greg is joining Brad on the night shift.
She's been here 8, 9 hours,
very patiently
waiting to steal something back.
The cub is desperate.
At this age, the cub should be eating
almost 3 pounds of meat every
day on top of her mum's milk.
It's quite easy to notice
with the thermal imaging
just how skinny Lediba and her cub are,
so it makes sense that her
and the cub waited.
But hunger is putting them both at risk.
Big boy is moving.
He has moved off the kill.
Lediba's sneaking in.
She's got it.
Brad, I think he's coming back?
She's seen it. Cub's on the move.
That is just remarkable.
The cub is heading
into the trees for safety
It's a hell of a climb for a cub.
She's seen him.
but Lediba is determined
to get something to eat.
Go, go! Come on.
Well done, Lediba.
Managed to sneak
a little bit of food there.
Lediba's nice and high up.
She'll get some decent value out
of what she managed to scavenge.
She needs it.
Lediba's persistence has paid off.
She can now feed herself and her cub.
Never a moment's rest
for a mother leopard.
Pobe is in hunt mode.
She's definitely walking about
with purpose.
After the cheetahs' hunt training
was interrupted by hyenas
It's so cool.
Her body language
just completely changes.
Ears have gone back.
lessons are back on.
I think she's gonna go.
There's a kudu calf. There's a kudu calf.
She's got it.
Kea's in already.
She is first on the scene.
That came completely out of nowhere.
She's a machine.
As soon as she gets up into hunt mode,
you're like,
"She's about to kill something."
You just know it.
Kea's watching Pobe
and Pobe is clamping her jaws
around this kudu's neck,
and this is a perfect
moment for Kea to learn
just what it takes to suffocate her prey.
Because that's what cheetahs do.
They just clamp down
on the windpipe of their prey.
By bringing in prey that is
alive and then showing
them how it's done,
this is the next stage
in their hunting practice.
Look at this.
Kea's having a go.
She's copying Pobe.
You can really see that Pobe is trying to
teach her a lesson here.
She keeps, like, clamping,
and then she lets it go,
and then Kea has a go.
Your parents always tell you
don't play with your food,
but that's exactly what you
should do if you're a cheetah cub.
Kea is learning fast
Where is Bo?
but her brother is skipping class.
Kea is calling Bo.
That is such a sweet sound.
Pobe is also calling.
They can make these
incredible chirping sounds.
He's coming.
I feel for him because he
just seems like he's
always a little bit slower
off the mark than Kea.
Kea runs into every situation head-first,
whereas Bo's a little bit more
shy and anxious of everything.
Pobe is succeeding as a cheetah mum.
All of this teaching
will be completely worth it
when these cubs reach about a year old
because at that point they can
start participating in the hunt.
Every day,
her cubs move another step closer
to looking after themselves.
Pobe is gonna start
handing the ropes over
to them and saying, you know,
"You go ahead."
Amazing.
Every single day,
these cubs are learning more and more.
Eventually, they're gonna be
absolutely unstoppable.
This is uncharted territory for me.
Gordon and Greg are
searching for lion mums
Matho, Naledi, Tsebe, and their cubs
but they've become
increasingly hard to find.
We have crossed to the west,
a place where we've never
found them before.
Bingo! Look!
Gee, girls. What the heck
are you doing down here?
Hallelujah! That is great.
Hey. Hey, fam. Been missing you guys.
Last time we saw them,
they'd just come out
of a big boxing match, but thankfully,
looks like everybody's doing OK.
Where have you been?
You can see in many of our lions
the healing ability is amazing.
Their lives are often shown
so vividly on their faces.
These lions are incredibly resilient.
They're just super tough.
Sets Hey, Gordon.
I just found some lionesses.
Heh heh heh.
I can't believe this.
I have Mmakgosi, Nosi, and Magogo.
That is good news.
What? We've been looking for so long.
I can't begin to tell you
how I'm feeling.
Sets has finally located
the other mums of the pride.
Moving in search
of safety from intruders
They're contact calling.
both groups of lionesses
are now within earshot.
Can you hear that?
My word.
The girls are up.
The 3 of them
Naledi, Tsebe, and Matho
they've all got up, started to move.
Could get very exciting.
This is quite incredible to see.
They are running.
They're running across the water.
After two weeks apart
Happy days.
Matho, Naledi, Tsebe,
and their cubs are reuniting
with the other pride mums.
Tell me that there's a better
sighting in life than this.
I don't think I've ever seen
them in such a huge number.
The bonds are clearly very strong.
It's as if they haven't seen
each other in a lifetime.
Seeing so many lions moving together,
you can't help but just feel
a sense of strength.
I'm feeling it right now.
This is the security
and safety in numbers
that this pride needs.
I think we could all
breathe a sigh of relief.
They've survived against the odds.
If I was an intruder lion,
this is one group
I don't want to mess with.