All language subtitles for Africas Fishing Leopards BBC Natural World 2015 720p HDTV David Attenborough EN Sub_Subtitles01.ENG

ANIMALS CALL

THUNDER RUMBLES

LEOPARD GRUNTS

In a remote corner of Africa...

..an extraordinary bond has formed.

BRAD BESTELINK: The female is now
the one that is accepting us more.

She's completely unfazed by us.

Wild leopards have no reason to
trust humans.

When they do,
a magic door is opened...

..into the private life of Africa's
most secretive predator.

I knew that from that point

the dynamic between those two was
going to change.

SNARLING

This is the story of a remarkable
two-year journey...

He seems to be
a bit of a fumbling fool.

..with a family
that's under pressure.

If anybody's going to get into
trouble,

it's probably going to be him.

Their enemies are strong...

..and for these cats,

nine lives may not be enough.

You don't know how
this is going to play out.

SNARLING

If they're going to make it...

..they will have to seize
every opportunity.

The Savuti River in northern
Botswana is a magnet for wildlife.

And where the herds graze,
predators follow.

Leopards, however,
are surprisingly vulnerable.

As solitary animals,
they are no match for the prides

and packs of their rivals.

For a mother with young cubs,
this is a dangerous place.

I remember the first time
that I saw this leopard,

she had killed an impala.

I knew that this leopard
had young cubs,

so I gave it quite a lot of space.

After a little while, slowly,
one of the cubs emerged.

The mother climbed a tree
right in front of us,

and naturally the cubs
followed the mother.

In a weird way, it was almost as if
she was presenting those cubs to us.

I guessed the cubs to
be three to four months old...

..in human terms, the equivalent
of a two- or three-year-old.

My initial instinct was not to get
involved with this...

with this family.

I've had a bad experience in the past

where I followed a mother leopard
and she,

over a period of a year-and-a-half,
lost all three of her cubs.

It was incredibly sad.

I didn't know if I wanted to go
through that again.

For film-maker Brad Bestelink,
the chance encounter was

the start of a long
and nerve-racking journey.

Despite his misgivings,
Brad teamed up with friend

and fellow cameraman Richard Uren

to try to document the fate of
their newly-adopted leopard family.

This place is peppered with lions,
wild dogs, hyenas.

There's a whole bunch of threats

that could impact on a really
young family of leopards.

It's going to be...

it's going to be a tough
job for her to keep those cubs alive.

LION ROARS

It will take around two years
for the mother to raise her family.

To succeed, she'll have to work hard
to feed her youngsters -

an impatient young male...

..and his more cautious sister.

Today, all three of them
are having to wait their turn.

Adult males are known to kill cubs
that aren't their own.

But judging from the mother's
relaxed attitude,

the gate-crasher is almost
certainly her mate.

The young male is eager
to meet his father.

Alas, leopards are not
among nature's doting dads.

For the snubbed son,
it's a bad start

to a day that's about
to get a whole lot worse.

Seeking to assert himself perhaps,

the young male lays
claim to the carcass.

There are still plenty of leftovers.

FLIES BUZZ

His mother seems to be content
to watch him feed...

..just so long as he keeps
the family's dinner safely stashed.

Trees ought to provide secure
storage for hard-won spoils -

a place beyond the reach of hyenas

and other thieves.

It's a juvenile blunder...

..and his timing
could hardly be worse.

African wild dogs are formidable
pack hunters...

..capable of killing adult leopards,
as well as cubs.

The cats need to move fast.

Right now, he is not
his mother's favourite

yet for both cubs

this has been a useful lesson.

To stay alive, you must stay alert.

The pack soon gives up and moves on.

In their hurry to steal
from the leopards,

they've missed a far
easier opportunity...

..an opportunity that hasn't
escaped the mother.

If she can catch it,

the impala fawn will provide a
welcome bonus for her own offspring.

One mother's loss is another's gain.

And she seems to have forgotten
about her son's earlier blunder.

The young male is quick to
accept the gift.

It's just what he needs
to improve his handling skills.

He grabs the carcass
and pounces on it and rolls with it

and tries to kill it and claw it...

..living out his fantasy of what
he wanted to be when he grew up.

He's a really...
quite a comical character to watch.

Having seen his mother take
the carcass up the tree,

he really made an effort
to do the same.

There's no shame in trying...

..and at least
he's got the right idea.

If he can stay out of trouble,

his enthusiastic spirit
should serve him well.

The family's territory
is a patchwork

of thickets and grassy clearings

overlooked by a small hill
known as Leopard Rock.

To keep her cubs alive
in this dangerous neighbourhood,

the mother must make sure
they stay hidden.

That is no easy task when the guinea
fowl are constantly giving you away.

GUINEA FOWL CALLS

The anxious mother needs to
hurry her cubs along.

She has literally taken
a piece of meat away from the cub

and is moving them a bit further on

to some more dense bush, somewhere
where there's a bit more cover.

It's just to get them
out of harm's way.

Hyenas will pick up their scent -

they will slowly
move in trying to find the cubs.

They are very easy prey.

Cleaning the cubs will help them
go undetected.

Bath time, however,
requires co-operation

which isn't always forthcoming.

The daughter is very disciplined,
she stays put and...

and goes through the process

but, er, trying to pin the young
boy down for a cleaning

is a difficult task.

When he goes through
his bath process,

he really doesn't like it,
he is always trying to wriggle away,

and just rebels against anything
the mother tries to enforce on him.

The mother has already done well to
get both of her cubs

through their first few months,
but she has a long way to go.

The mothers are solitary.

There's no baby-sitting or other
individuals that'll help

in the raising of these cubs.

Having an anchor point
within their territory

where the mother
can safely leave those cubs

is vital to their survival.

Leopard Rock, with its steep sides
and secret crevices,

is a place where the
youngsters can sit tight,

beyond the reach of more
powerful predators.

With her two cubs
carefully hidden away,

the mother is free to go and hunt.

It could be days before she returns.

As the land dries, thirsty animals
are starting to gather at the river.

Its shrinking pools contain
the only water for miles around...

..and, with each passing week,
the volume of traffic is increasing.

It was several months ago that Brad
and Richard first saw the cubs...

and, since that time, the young
leopards have grown rapidly,

almost doubling in size.

These adolescents,
however, have a lot to learn.

If they're going to succeed,
they need to leave Leopard Rock

and start hunting for themselves.

It isn't long before the daughter
spots a bite-sized target,

a fat little ostrich chick would be

a delicious mouthful.

But its sharp-eyed mother
is no fool.

Flapping her wings,
she distracts the hunter

and then lures it away
on a wild-goose chase.

By the time the daughter realises
she's been conned...

..her meal is nowhere to be seen.

GRUNTING AND SPLASHING

The male, meanwhile, is intrigued
by the commotion at the river.

Leopards are loners
that live by their wits.

Their entire survival strategy
depends on their ability

to notice things...

..and learn quickly.

However, the young male's naturally
inquisitive nature

could be his downfall.

Curiosity can sometimes
kill the cat.

As the male has grown up,

his personality has really
started to become obvious.

He's a typical boy...

..bolder than he needs to be,
and, er, continually making mistakes.

There's very little caution.

ELEPHANT ROARS

ELEPHANT BELLOWS

He doesn't seem to realise
scale and size.

If anybody's going to get into
trouble,

it's probably going to be him.

ELEPHANT BELLOWS

The young female, still hungry,

has now caught up with her
brother at the river.

ELEPHANT CONTINUES TO BELLOW

The amount of activity
here must be intimidating...

..and without their mother
to look after them,

the young explorers could be
getting into trouble.

GUINEA FOWL CALLS

GUINEA FOWL CONTINUES TO CALL

The wildebeest might have escaped

but the cubs have not gone
unnoticed.

Given the chance, lions will kill
other predators,

especially leopards.

I've seen lions kill
leopards before.

Particularly at a young age,

they don't have the skills
to escape them.

The smaller cats are only safe
as long as they hold their nerve

and stay put.

When it looks
as if the lions are less alert...

..the would-be hunters prepare

to run for their lives.

Badly shaken,
the cubs retreat to Leopard Rock.

The daughter, in particular,

is quick to seek
her mother's reassurance.

Over the past few months,

it appears that the two females have
become closer and more affectionate.

With two growing teenagers
still depending on her,

it's the mother who's now coming
under pressure.

Feeding her family is only
going to get harder.

ANIMAL CALLS

This year,
the dry season is unusually harsh.

Even the river,
normally a lifeline for the animals,

has almost disappeared.

Yet the mud soup that remains
could be concealing a free lunch...,

..if only the leopards can figure
out what it is...

..and how to get it.

Are these weird apparitions
something to fear...

..or a harmless
and much-needed source of food?

The mother has probably never seen

a live catfish before.

Eventually she loses courage...

..perhaps her son will be bolder.

He has spotted some fish
of his own -

when they stop moving, though,

he seems not to know
where they've gone.

It's the elephant that finally
reveals them.

You could almost see like
a light bulb going on...

..and literally,

right after the elephant pulled out,
he went straight in.

It was like playing

with soap in the shower -

he just sort of fumbled around

and didn't know what to do.

There's mud being splattered

on his body and on his face.

Finally he actually bit it,

which gave him a grip on it.

I just remember that expression
when he stood up.

He was so proud of his achievement.

He was quite stoked.

Over the next two weeks,

the leopards continue to plunder
the mud-choked pools.

In times of plenty, leopards, like
other cats, will gorge themselves,

eating up to a quarter of their
bodyweight at a single sitting.

It's only a new development
that threatens to bring

an end to the feast.

Rain that fell several months ago

and over a thousand miles away
is at last arriving here.

For the stranded catfish,
the water can't come fast enough.

Another week of flooding,

and this will be a river

several metres deep.

Unless they've got
the nerve to jump in,

the leopards are going to
have to find their meals elsewhere.

Away from the river,
the land is still bone dry.

By now, the cubs should be starting
to hunt more regular prey,

but with little in the way of cover,
it's difficult to stalk anything.

While the young female targets
a guinea fowl...

..the male, typically,
is being a little more ambitious.

LEOPARD GROWLS

GUINEA FOWL SQUAWK

The longer the cubs fail
to feed themselves,

the greater the strain
on their mother.

Perhaps the frustrated hunters
will fare better

under the cover of darkness.

Like all cats, leopards have superb
night vision and acute hearing.

ANIMALS GRUNT AND CROAK

The waters are brimming with
noisy new nightlife

and some of the river's former
residents have now returned.

Could the channel, once again,

prove a successful hunting ground
even though it's full?

The catfish are still here

chasing smaller fish
into the shallows.

If only they can catch them,

the hungry leopards
know that they will be good to eat.

You could see they were totally
intrigued

by the snaking
movement in the water.

Heads right down, following
the swirls of the catfish

as they moved up and down.

So curious and so focused on them.

I had no idea what
they were going to do.

It's the daughter, normally
so cautious, who tries first.

Her second strike is more daring...

..but her claws just aren't
long enough to get a grip.

She needs to pluck up her courage

and, quite literally,
sink her teeth into the problem.

Take three,

and she's got it!

Having watched her, the rest of the
family are soon following suit...

..and getting in on the act.

While leopards are known
to collect fish from drying rivers,

to actually hunt them
when the water's high

is something rarely witnessed.

Certainly, after a lifetime
in the African bush,

it's behaviour
that Brad has never seen before.

To see these individuals,
the two cubs and mom...

..actually run and dive into
the river...

..to see that, that really
is a remarkable piece of behaviour.

All three of these leopards are
using the same technique

to catch these catfish.

They dive in, pin the thing down and
use their mouths to actually bite it.

That's hunting - active predation
on fish out of a river.

They caught catfish that the
necks of the catfish were bigger

than their own.

Their new-found knowledge of
catfish and how to catch them

won't just help them
fill their bellies tonight...

..it will stick with these leopards
for the rest of their lives.

THUNDER CRASHES

The family has taken a giant leap
towards survival

and the cubs
are starting to come of age.

Over the next month,

these fully-fledged fishing
leopards continue to feast.

Their talent for exploiting
opportunities,

no matter how fleeting, is enabling
them to thrive, at least for now.

The catfish could melt away
at any moment,

but for a family that's
continually under pressure,

this is a rare period
when everyone can relax.

CONTENTED GROWLING

Having held back for so long,

the daughter appears to be
gaining in confidence.

It's a change the film team
is noticing.

The female is now the one that is
accepting us more.

There's a natural
tendency for the mom

and the male to sort of circle us
and keep their distance...

..but the young female, she's
definitely taken a shine to us.

Very often we've had her
stick her head in

and sort of just has a good look.

You've got these eyes sort of
peeping,

and the head moving, watching you...

..completely unfazed by us.

We've never had that response
out of the male.

She's definitely the most
trusting of the two.

THUNDER RUMBLES

November -

and the first big storm signals
the arrival of the wet season.

Within the family, a storm
of a different kind is brewing.

For one of the cubs,
it heralds a perilous new chapter.

The cubs are almost fully grown...

ROARING

..and they're starting to act
their age.

Over the past few days, brother
and sister have been together...

..very active,
very playful, which is quite unusual.

There's definitely
something going on.

She's definitely starting
to give off a signal.

At around two years old, a female
leopard reaches a turning point.

She's obviously becoming
sexually mature,

and that is triggering
something in his behaviour.

GROWLING

It's only play but sooner or later

her scent will attract

the big boys...

..and no suitor is going

to tolerate the young male.

Yet the daughter, too,

is courting danger.

With leopards, the female
when she becomes

ready to mate, all of a sudden
poses a threat to the mother.

She almost takes
the place of the mother,

which obviously wouldn't
really be tolerated.

When she picks up her daughter's
scent, the mother seems displeased.

It was as if she was smelling
a female from another territory,

rather than her daughter.

FIERCE GROWLING

I knew that from that point,

the dynamic between those two
was going to change.

When they first made contact,

the mother just lay down

and let the cubs approach her.

The male sort of came up to her

and brushed past and moved off.

As the female started to approach,
the mother really started to snarl.

SNARLING

Every time the young female
came close to her,

she was very hostile towards her,
and the daughter was, you know,

obviously not understanding what was
going on, persisting

and trying to make contact - that
familiarity that she's so used to.

SNARLING CONTINUES

FIERCE SNARLING

She eventually got too close,

and it ended up in quite
a serious fight.

GROWLING AND ROARING

You can imagine
the surprise on the daughter's face.

It's just not something that she
would ever expect from her mother.

SNARLING CONTINUES

The message is unmistakable...

..the daughter is no longer
one of the family.

If the female cub gets pushed out

at this stage of her life,

she's not equipped

to survive on her own.

THUNDER CRASHES

I haven't seen her take down
a fair-sized animal yet.

It's kind of worrying - you don't
know how this is going to play out.

THUNDER CRASHES

RAIN POURS

The wet season is now well
established

and for the evicted daughter,
it's crunch time.

She may be old enough to start
a family of her own,

yet she's never been so alone

or so hungry.

As days stretch into weeks,

her struggle to stay alive
becomes increasingly obvious.

Ever more desperate, she's snatching
at any opportunity...

..but a cat of this size
can't live off squirrels forever.

If she's going to survive, the young
female needs to up her game.

For the starving outcast,
the clouds may have a silver lining.

The wet season
is also the birth season,

and babies offer promising targets.

A zebra foal
would keep her fed for a week...

..but she's quickly
spotted by its vigilant mother.

Unwilling to give up, the daughter
tries a riskier tactic...

..perhaps by flaunting herself
she will create enough panic

to separate the foal
from its mother.

It's a dangerous game of bluff.

One well-aimed hoof could kill
the leopard...

..and the herd seems
determined to do so.

Her botched hunt is yet another
serious setback...

..and those who have watched
her fail

seem to delight in taunting her.

BIRDS CHIRRUP

Elsewhere, her brother

is enjoying a life of ease.

Thanks to mother, his belly,
at least, is full.

In fact, the male has now
outgrown his provider.

At around 50 kilos, his prospects of
survival are now stronger than ever.

It's the fate
of the weakening daughter

that continues to worry Brad.

Alone and pushed to the edge
of her mother's territory,

she's failing to make
the grade as a hunter.

Today it's a young kudu that has
caught her eye...

..but she's got as close as this
many times before and still failed.

LEOPARD GROWLS

LEOPARD GROWLS

KUDO CRIES OUT

KUDO CONTINUES TO CRY OUT

She hasn't made the quickest
or cleanest of kills.

Its significance however could
hardly be greater.

To the huge relief of the film team,

the daughter has finally
come of age.

Two years ago
when we started this project,

I didn't expect that
I'd be in this situation now.

It's quite astounding that
this family has managed to survive.

The young female, she's very able,

she's made her first really big kill
and is a competent hunter.

The male,
he's no threat to his mother,

so he will linger in her territory
for quite a long time...

..scrounging carcasses from her

and sort of piggy-backing
on her success.

In time, a big male will come in

and probably give the young boy
the hiding he's

due and send him on his way,
make him work for a living.

The mother is one of the most
exceptional leopards

I've ever spent time with.

She really has done an amazing job,
she's raised both of them...

..quite a feat for a leopard -

to successfully raise two cubs
to full maturity.

These special cats have coped

with everything nature has thrown
at them -

breaking boundaries,
they've even learnt to fish.

In this toughest of places,

they've shown what it takes

for not one leopard,

but an entire family, to survive.