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I've spent much of my working life
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trying to film big cats.
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I've watched them in the wild
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and analyzed the footage in the editing room,
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which has given me a real insight into their behavior.
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Today, we can see these amazing predators
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on our screens any time we choose.
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(dramatic music)
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But until quite recently,
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we knew practically nothing about them.
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(dramatic music)
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Big cats are normally shy and very secretive.
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Today, their populations are shrinking fast,
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but now we have the means to view them
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in more detail than ever.
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(dramatic music)
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And learn the intricacies of their lives.
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(dramatic music)
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Which is just as well,
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because we need to find ways of living alongside them
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before they disappear forever.
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(tense music)
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My efforts to film jaguars began 25 years ago
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in a place called Nancite Beach
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on Costa Rica's Pacific coast.
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When Nancite was included in a newly-created
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Santa Rosa National Park in 1971,
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jaguars were rarely seen here, if at all.
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When I arrived to make a film about coatis,
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I knew that it was technically possible
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to see a jaguar and hoped to include it in the film.
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Over a period of four months,
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there wasn't so much as a footprint.
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I now realize that the presence of coatis
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and a pack of coyotes almost meant that
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by definition, there were no jaguars here.
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Incredibly, at the time,
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there was very little research about jaguars.
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Most of their behavior was a mystery.
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The first jaguar scientists struggled
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to go anywhere near their subjects.
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But times have changed.
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There are now a couple of places in the world where seeing
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a wild jaguar is a possibility rather than a dream.
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Recently, there were reports of jaguar footprints
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on the beach here,
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and of course, I had to visit.
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(tense music)
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The jaguar is one of the most illusive of all the cats.
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Until 10 years ago, it was practically unfilmed in the wild.
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Compared to the other big cats,
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it is one of the least well-known and most secretive,
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crafty and perfectly camouflaged.
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Jaguars have spent far more time watching humans
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from behind a bush
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than humans have managed to spend watching jaguars.
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(splashing)
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(tense music)
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It's easy to confuse the jaguar with a leopard,
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but they're surprisingly different.
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At 50% heavier than the average leopard,
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with shorter legs and a much shorter tail,
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jaguars also hunt different prey.
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Its physique is in fact more tiger-like,
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with powerful jaws and powerful front legs and shoulders.
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(waves crashing)
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For a large predator like the jaguar,
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the remote shoreline of Nancite
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offers slim pickings.
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The total area of beach and forest here
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is little more than two square kilometers,
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so it would typically make up just a fraction
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of the average jaguar territory,
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and the chances of actually seeing a jaguar here
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would at best be tiny.
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But here in Nancite, there are plenty of other predators
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and scavengers hanging around, as if waiting for something.
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The presence of so many jaguar tracks
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suggests something unusual is going on.
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(waves crashing)
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But filming wild jaguars is one of the hardest
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things I've ever tried to do.
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The latest high resolution camera traps
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gave us a chance to see jaguars in the forest,
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but in daylight, all they revealed were nervous animals.
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No jaguars.
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So we set up on the beach
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in the hope we could get a clear view at night.
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And waited.
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Using only red light to see with,
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and super-sensitive starlight cameras to film with.
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Without a moon, it's so dark
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that even the bioluminescent glow of waves is visible.
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But the starlight camera struggles to see detail.
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With the help of infrared light,
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we can get a clearer view,
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and the thermal camera allows us to see anything
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that moves on the beach.
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A family of raccoons emerges to dig up turtle eggs.
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Nancite is a turtle nesting beach,
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which is one reason why the American crocodile
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is hanging around.
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But at this time of year, the nesting season is almost over.
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Generally,
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only a few single nesters come ashore.
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This is an olive ridley, the smallest of the sea turtles.
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(waves crashing)
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They're much faster to nest than other sea turtles,
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so any predator has to find them quickly in the darkness.
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For a brief moment, the thermal camera on the clifftops
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spots a jaguar on the beach.
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(tense music)
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It returns to the scrub at the edge of the beach
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as if on the trail of something.
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My own feeble human vision
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can barely see the turtle at close range.
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Although cat vision is more sensitive,
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it's unlikely a jaguar could see this from a distance.
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But the distinctive sound of flippers
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slapping on the hard sand could be a giveaway
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to super-sensitive hearing.
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Human ears could hardly detect this sound
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above the waves, but I have observed
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coyotes react to small sounds in the surf
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a big distance away,
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and if coyotes can do this, why not cats?
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But it's not until the turtle is actually nesting
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that the jaguar makes its move.
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The turtles seem to enter a trance-like state,
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as if they were unaware of their surroundings
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and any threats to them.
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Their defenses are designed for sharks, not land predators.
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(waves crashing)
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The jaguar kills the turtle with a bite to the neck,
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cutting the reptile's jugular,
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and the turtle is completely helpless.
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But the truly remarkable thing about Nancite
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is that it isn't home to just one jaguar.
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We now know that as many as eight big cats
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can visit this beach in one night.
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And the biggest males will always take what they want.
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Small females have to give way
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when faced with a male twice their size.
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When there are few turtles, there is competition.
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And of course, it's not just jaguars
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they need to worry about.
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These cats don't like to be out in the open
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when they feel there's a threat.
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Now the male drags to turtle towards the forest.
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Jaguars have been known to eat almost anything,
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and have been referred to as dustbins of the forest.
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Here they specialize in turtles.
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The cats were so relaxed,
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we got to witness at close range
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their phenomenal jaw strength.
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Jaguars are said to have the most powerful bite
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of all the big cats,
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which could be why they're so adaptable.
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Even when they took their kills into thick undergrowth,
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we were still able to follow them with trap cams.
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The remote images reveal
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that each kill lasts about three days.
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(sneezes)
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And once the ants have found it,
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it's just too painful to eat,
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unless the jaguar moves it.
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As the half moon rises just after midnight,
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the beach is transformed.
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(dramatic music)
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The crocodile returns to the water's edge
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as if waiting for something.
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Meanwhile, another jaguar appears to patrol the beach.
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(tense music)
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The crocodile stays near the water for safety,
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and now more turtles are arriving.
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In the water, they're as light as a feather,
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on land, carrying her 40 kilo bulk is an effort.
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For reasons scientists don't fully understand,
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this beach is just one of a few
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that olive ridley turtles use for nesting.
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These same animals travel the Pacific,
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yet return here to this one spot every year.
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She finds the right place and temperature
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by smelling the sand.
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(waves crashing)
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And then she starts to dig.
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By the time she's laying,
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she's in a trance.
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She doesn't even notice me or the cameras.
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As if on cue, there's a jaguar.
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He doesn't need to listen for the turtles now,
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it can see them perfectly well.
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(tense music)
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As far as I know, this is the first time
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a wild jaguar has ever been filmed in moonlight.
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(tense music)
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This must be one of the most relaxed big cat hunts ever.
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The kill technique is the same.
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The jaguar pushes the turtle's face into the sand
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so it can reach the jugular,
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which it cuts.
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As the jaguar laps up the turtle's life blood,
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the crocodile moves in for a closer look,
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but is wise to keep its distance.
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Now the jaguar starts to move its prize
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away from prying eyes.
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But as the cat starts for the forest,
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it changes its mind.
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(tense music)
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Again, the same technique.
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In cats, the need to feed
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and the desire to kill are not necessarily linked.
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Despite the first turtle being enough,
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a second is killed too.
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(tense music)
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It'll be a few years yet before this
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two and a half meter crocodile could challenge the jaguar,
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but one day it will.
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If the big cat doesn't eat it first.
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(tense music)
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Jaguars were missing here for something like 50 years,
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and now they're back
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to feed on turtles.
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The number of turtles coming ashore is increasing.
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They have no knowledge of what is happening on land.
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This is the start of a small arribada,
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a Spanish word meaning arrival,
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used to describe the mass nesting behavior
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of the olive ridley turtle.
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That's the point, this is a turtle defense strategy
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to synchronize nesting so that they saturate
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predators with arriving adults
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as well as for emerging youngsters.
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When the beach is inundated,
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even jaguars with the most insatiable drive to kill
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are unable to make a significant impact,
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and it's predators like jaguars
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that create this behavior by preying
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disproportionately on the single nesters.
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The number of turtles is closely monitored
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and we have a good idea of how many come every year,
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and what their main threats are.
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Jaguars turn out to be way down the list.
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(playful music)
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By dawn, the arribada is almost over,
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some 500 turtles having already nested,
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and now the direction of travel
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is mostly towards the sea.
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Nancite is one of only three major olive ridley rookeries
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on the entire Pacific coast.
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That jaguars are back after such a long absence
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is great news for the cats,
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but perhaps for the turtles as well.
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Fossils have shown us that jaguars have fed on
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these ancient reptiles for hundreds of thousands of years.
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Jaguars are a natural part of this beach.
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By driving out the coyotes and coatis,
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which used to dig up many thousands of eggs each year,
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it's actually possible that jaguars
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have done the turtles a favor.
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There seem to be fewer black vultures
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on the beach than I remember from the past,
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and that's because they're all hanging around
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various turtle kills in another forest.
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As far as I can see, the return of the big cats has
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changed the ecology of the whole place quite dramatically.
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Jaguar scientist Eduardo Carrillo has been watching
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the process for 35 years.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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The fact that we can film jaguars at all
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is possibly due to the Nancite Turtle Project,
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and mostly to the work of one man.
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Wilbert Matamoros has spent most nights
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walking the beach for the best part of the last six years
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to count and measure nesting turtles.
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At first, there were very few jaguars,
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and they kept a low profile.
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But as the years passed,
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the cats became curious.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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He has spent so much time on the beach with the turtles
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that the cats now regard him as just part of the furniture.
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Without his constant presence,
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it's unlikely that we would have seen a single cat.
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Some of the jaguars appeared a bit surprised to see us,
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but by the time we had spent a month there,
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others began to ignore us completely.
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I can tell you that if they don't want to show themselves,
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you will never see a jaguar,
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and yet here, this beach is utterly unique
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in the whole world, and having wild jaguars
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just walking 10, 20, 30 meters away has been
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one of the most extraordinary privileges of my life.
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With the help of radio collars,
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Eduardo and his team have been able to track
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the movements of the jaguars here
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to reveal that some of them alternate their time
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between Nancite where they hunt turtles at night
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and mountain forests 20 miles away,
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where they hunt white-lipped peccaries
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during the daylight hours.
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As soon as the peccaries detect a jaguar
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or any threat,
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(teeth clicking)
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they use their canines to make this strange sound.
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They escape this time,
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but as long as a jaguar stays in touch with the herd,
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there will always be a chance to catch one.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Nancite is a very unusual situation.
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Looking at these pictures, it's easy to forget
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that places where it is even possible
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to film wild jaguars are very rare.
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In fact, I know of only one other
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where jaguars can be filmed in the wild behaving naturally.
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(relaxed music)
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Brazil's Pantanal, the world's largest wetland.
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(relaxed music)
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Caimans, small versions of crocodiles, crowd the bank.
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Giant otters patrol the waterways.
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And capybaras, the world's largest rodent,
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bask in the morning sun.
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This is where the biggest of all jaguars
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grow to 150 kilos, as big as a lioness.
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As with Nancite 10 years ago,
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it was almost impossible to see a jaguar here,
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but the rise of tourists has helped them
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become used to people,
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and there's been a huge change in attitude
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among ranchers too.
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In the space of a decade, the cat that was invisible
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to humans can now be seen in the wild
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by anyone buying a ticket.
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The vultures that scavenge jaguar kills in Costa Rica
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are here in numbers too,
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keeping an eye on their meal ticket.
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So something must be going right for the jaguars.
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Despite the fact that there are more caimans here
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than any other type of crocodile anywhere else on Earth.
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There are thought to be 10 million living in the Pantanal.
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On the surface, it doesn't seem to be typical cat country.
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(birds chirping)
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Most jaguars are quite nocturnal,
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but here they can be seen basking in sunlight
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or patrolling their territory
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or hunting,
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and the jaguar has plenty of options.
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But this habitat doesn't suit a high-speed chase.
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(tense music)
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With the approach of a big cat,
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(splashing)
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everything makes for the water,
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which is what you'd expect in broad daylight.
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(animals vocalizing)
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Caimans, with their own set of powerful jaws
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and sharp teeth are not the kind of animal
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that is normally preyed upon.
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(splashing)
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As potential victims, they pose a few problems.
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Firstly, once in the water,
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the caiman will have far superior speed
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and would easily out-swim a jaguar.
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Secondly, cats usually kill their prey
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with a suffocating bite to the throat,
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but caimans can hold their breath for half an hour,
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so that won't work.
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The only thing that's in the jaguar's favor
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is that the cold-blooded reptiles need to bask
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in sunlight during the day,
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and this is the only chance the big cats have to catch one.
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However, caiman have excellent vision
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and can see a jaguar coming from a great distance.
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A successful hunt requires planning.
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(dramatic music)
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The jaguar has to get very close without being seen,
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and so goes into the forest and moves upstream out of sight.
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The jaguar emerges from the forest
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directly behind the caiman
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in its blind spot.
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(tense music)
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The cat slips into the water
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and swims directly towards the basking reptile
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00:29:11,370 --> 00:29:13,963
staying exactly where the caiman can't see it.
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(dramatic music)
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00:29:31,981 --> 00:29:34,314
(splashing)
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Instead of the typical big cat throat bite,
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the jaguar uses crushing jaw power
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to bite straight into the brain casing,
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00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:58,113
and the kill is almost instantaneous.
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00:30:00,220 --> 00:30:02,630
Perhaps this explains the jaguar's daylight
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00:30:02,630 --> 00:30:05,870
loving habits here, as caimans spend the night
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00:30:05,870 --> 00:30:08,633
in the water where the cats can't reach them.
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With their ability to swim,
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eat anything attitude,
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and unparalleled jaw strength,
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jaguars have made the forests and swamps
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of central and South America their own.
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We think of these cats as typical animals of the new world,
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but in fact, jaguars began life in Europe and Asia
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over a million years ago
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and then found their way to the Americas.
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Long ago, they disappeared from Eurasia
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and we now know from genetic studies that 10,000 years ago,
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they came very close to extinction here too.
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Luckily, they managed to recolonize
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much of their former range, but in modern times,
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00:31:04,620 --> 00:31:07,233
jaguar distribution is shrinking again.
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To see a mother and cub playing in the open like this
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was until recently extremely rare.
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(tender music)
(birds singing)
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But now they've begun to show themselves,
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we have a real chance to learn more about jaguars
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and perhaps find ways of living alongside them.
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(relaxed music)
31644
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