All language subtitles for BBC.Lost.Land.of.the.Tiger.2of3.PDTV.Xvid.AC3.MVGroup.org.eng

One of the most remarkable animals
ever to have walked the earth

is heading for extinction.

Now, an international team of
scientists, filmmakers and explorers

has been given unique access to the
remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

If they can find a thriving
population of tigers here,

there's a chance to bring
them back from the brink.

It's perfect tiger habitat.

But it won't be easy.

If a snow leopard
can take down a yak,

it certainly
wouldn't struggle with me.

It can't get any worse that this.

THUNDER CRASHES

Woo-hoo!

They're taking on the
wildest Himalayan rivers...

..fighting
through the deepest jungles...

..and scaling the highest peaks.

My lungs are burning.

My legs are burning.

Do I really want to do this?

What they discover could be the key
to saving this magnificent big cat.

Can we save tigers?

Absolutely we can save tigers.

We will save tigers.

Hidden in the foothills of the
world's highest mountain range,

lies the little known
Kingdom of Bhutan.

These Himalayan forests
could be the tiger's last hope
for survival in the wild.

An expedition has set up camp
on the banks of a river
in the south of the country.

A hand-picked team has already
spent 10 days searching for tigers.

They now have hard evidence
these elusive cats
are living close to base camp.

For this phase of
the expedition, they
will be spreading the net wider.

On his way to help them, is
wildlife cameraman, Gordon Buchanan.

He's spent 10 years
filming big cats worldwide.

It's amazing that
we are looking out at what could be
the future for tigers in the wild.

The only chance that they've got

are them existing
in hills like this.

He's already placed remote
cameras high in the Himalayas,

to try to capture images
of tigers living at altitude.

Now, Gordon's joining forces with
Doctor Alan Rabinowitz, one of the
world's foremost tiger experts.

Alan has dedicated his life
to saving tigers.

I'm not sure
tigers will be able to survive.

I wake up wondering
if there's any hope for the tiger.

If we continue on the course
we are now,

tigers will be extinct in the wild

easily within a couple of decades.

With Gordon in camp,
the team's reunited.

They've worked
together around the world.

But this is their most
critical mission so far.

They have just 10 days left here.

Alan gets Gordon straight
up to speed

with the images
they've recorded close to camp.

Oh!

Oh, my word.

Oh, gosh, they're beautiful.

There's no other animal like them.
And it walks that way.

It walks like, "nothing bothers me,
I don't have to be afraid
of anything in this forest".

It just walks that way!

It's a promising start.

But now, the expedition needs
more detailed information.

What I need you to do now is
to get me more pieces of the puzzle.

How many more tigers
are there in this area?

How far in the river valleys
are they heading up?

For Bhutan to offer tigers a
lifeline, Alan needs to know whether

there's a continuous population,
right across the country.

He's sent naturalist and expert
tracker Steve Backshall up-river,
far to the east.

The Drangme Chhu
is the biggest river in Bhutan.

It actually starts way up
in the high Himalaya.

It flows right across
eastern Bhutan.

There are no records at all about
tiger numbers in eastern Bhutan.

Nobody knows
anything about them here.

If we could find
any evidence at all of tigers here,

that's vital information.

Through this rugged landscape,

river valleys are natural
highways for wildlife.

They are the best place
to search for tigers.

Steve's journey will begin
at the top of the Drangme Chhu.

He'll travel downstream, scouring
the riverbanks for tiger tracks...

right the way back to base camp,
100 kilometres away.

That's where
the proper mission begins.

As this river snakes away from
the path that we've been walking on,

it heads into some of the most
unknown territory in Bhutan.

Down there
is where we're really going to find

some answers about the tiger and
the future of the tiger in Bhutan.

Answers need to be found,
and quickly.

Virtually nothing is known
about Bhutan's vast forests,

but we do know that elsewhere,
tigers are in deep trouble.

In the last century, the world
has lost 98% of its tigers.

Only small pockets survive.

There could be as few
as 3,000 left in the wild.

But all hope is not lost.

Along the foothills
of the Himalayas,

where human pressure
is not so intense,

Alan has a plan to join together
fragmented tiger populations

and give them
the space they need to roam.

It's an idea he's been working on
for many years.

The solution I have for saving
tigers is to connect

these isolated populations

through corridors,
through linkages in the landscape.

So that some of these tigers could
move between isolated fragments

and thus the isolated fragments
become part of a larger whole.

Bhutan is the missing link.

In India, the more isolated
tiger populations have become,

the quicker they are dying out.

Even those living in
protected reserves.

Oxford University biologist,
Doctor George McGavin,

is heading south to India,
to find out why.

It will be
a very different experience
from the forests of Bhutan.

It's really only when you're up here,
that you realise just how vast

the forest is, and, you know,

how many tigers
are roaming down there,

I wonder.

That's what
Gordon wants to find out.

But to estimate
the density of tigers

in the forest around base camp,

he must draw on
all his field experience.

All along here is exactly
where I'd expect to find tigers.

That sort of lush,
green grass that's growing here,

creatures like Sambar deer will come
out and feed here at night time.

And tigers will come out
and check

if there's
anything there for them to eat.

Each tiger hunts over a huge area.

So Gordon's decided his best chance
is to blitz the forest

with 30 remote cameras,
which can record day and night.

What we're trying to do
is figure out how many tigers
are in this area,

because it'll give us an overall
indication of the health

of the tiger population
in this part of Bhutan.

So we need to distinguish
one from the other

and the best way of doing that
is the stripe pattern on each side.

They have a unique,
almost fingerprint pattern
that their stripes make up,

so if we can photograph as many
tigers as possible,

we should be
able to tell one from another.

Far to the east,
Steve's 10-day descent of the
Drangme Chhu is about to begin.

Dave Allardice will lead three
rafts carrying the expedition's
food and filming gear.

He's navigated the biggest Himalayan
rivers, and knows their dangers.

We're going to be very careful out
there. The water's running high,
you can see it's snow melt.

There's quite a lot of water,
so we'll have to be careful.

It's hard telling what's down there.

Yeah, I guess
that's the thing - we're kind of
paddling off into the unknown.

The team's found a calm spot
to launch, but once they start,

there's no escape
from this steep-sided gorge.

The nerves
are going just a little bit.

Also really, really optimistic about
our chances

of finding evidence of tigers
moving through here.

And that's our big goal, really.

Steve and three other kayakers will
scout each set of rapids

to pick a safe route
through for the rafts.

With the river running so high,
there'll be no margin for error.

Near base camp,
Gordon's setting camera traps.

They won't trigger unless an
animal walks within a few metres.

Gordon now needs to think
like a tiger.

Let me just go up here.

I am a tiger. I am a tiger.

I am a tiger. Oh, no.

I'm thinking about food.

I'm thinking about going to a place
where I can get something to eat.

I think I'll cross here, because
it's just a little leap like this.

And I would go...

this side of the rock.

Maybe just right here.

Tigers aren't the only
wildlife the team's looking for.

Bhutan's forests
remain largely unexplored,

so the expedition
is compiling a report

of all the animals that live here.

Wildlife camera woman, Justine
Evans, is walking the forest trails
to see what creatures she can find.

It's a huge forest, and I think it's
just a tough place to work, you know?

It's a tough place to get shots.

Especially now
when there's a lot of rain,

there's a lot of food about, it's
going to be a really difficult thing.

Off we go.

Alan will stay in camp to analyse
camera trap images as they come in.

The amount of tiger prey
gives him a picture of how many
tigers this forest might support.

These camera traps, these
are our eyes in the jungle.

So far, the tiger prey that
we're getting in the camera traps -

the Sambar deer and the gaur,
they look beautiful.

But the team really wants
to find tigers here.

And right across Bhutan.

Steve is in the east, on the wild,
upper reaches of the Drangme Chhu.

It's so rugged, so remote.

You can see why nobody's ever
penetrated into this place before.

I mean, you could never
get down these canyon walls,

and it's just an absolute
haven for wildlife.

And hopefully,
one of those will be our tiger.

Their search has
been made much harder.

The Monsoon rains
have arrived early.

The river is high
and the rapids are now treacherous.

I've got a big rapid
to the left. Stop!

I'm going to stay away from them.

Come on! Come on!

Right now, tigers are the last
thing on their minds.

Keep paddling!

Hard right! Keep going.
Forward together again.

Come on!

Keep right of that one.

Safely through the rapids,
they look for a place to stop.

Sandy beaches are where Steve
hopes to find tiger footprints.

But the rains have made
his mission doubly difficult.

You can see all of this rain just
spatters off the surface

and makes all the prints
totally indistinct.

Everything around me now, I mean,
there's lots of animal prints here,

I have no idea
what any of them are.

Some of them could have
been left yesterday.

It just makes our job
almost impossible.

We need to find a tiger track that's
been left within the last hour,

that's the only way we're going
to succeed.

The team press on.

They will explore every beach
they come across.

100 kilometres down-river,
Gordon's been dogged by rain too.

But his search
is proving more productive.

Come and see this.

Nice.

Very nice.

These are the tracks of either...

a very small tiger or a leopard.

These are just ultra fresh.

Look at that - it's
just literally just been made.

These are the first
big cat tracks that I've found.

Oh, that's good. Man, I was
beginning to worry,

because there's almost nothing
coming up this river bed,

not even Sambar deer, nothing.

And then to find this,
is all the encouragement

that I need
to maybe put some remote cameras.

We've got a big cat right here.

Only if Gordon
gets a picture of it

can they tell whether
it's a different tiger,

or one they've already seen.

A thousand kilometres away, in
India,

George is travelling
to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve

to find out why every
single tiger has become so precious.

HORN BEEPS

Very loud
horn for such a small scooter.

India used to have lots of tigers
and they were all over the place,

and now they're just clinging on
to small, isolated reserves.

And they're surrounded by
a sea of humanity

and I don't
really see how tigers

will be able to survive
in the long term,

when they haven't got anywhere to go.

As the population of the
Indian subcontinent has exploded,

tigers have been pushed
out of their former habitat.

Numerous protective
reserves have been created,

but tigers are now confined to
far smaller ranges than they need.

There are 27 tigers in this core,

which is about
100 kilometres square.

Which is the range
of one male tiger in the wild.

There's not enough space
within the park boundaries.

Inevitably, tigers wander outside,

and into direct conflict
with humans.

Local tiger expert, Digpal,

has been battling with this problem
for over 10 years.

What are the risks for a tiger,
individual,

if it has to go outside,
if it's pushed out?

They start killing cattle or
buffalos, or whatever they get.

So the maximum risk
is the villagers.

They poison the carcass, and that's
where the poachers can also go.

So a very high risk outside?

Very high risk, yes.

Tigers feed on a kill
for several days.

If they prey on cattle
outside the reserve,

angry villagers poison the carcass.

When the tiger returns,
it is doomed.

It's a world away from
the unbroken forests of Bhutan.

Gordon is heading back to camp,

to do a first check
of his remote cameras.

One or two casualties,

most of them intact.

That's how they're supposed to look.

This is how they look once an
elephant has got hold of them.

HE LAUGHS

Do you know what?
I can probably repair that.

But just how good has Gordon been
at second-guessing the tigers?

Oh, my gosh!

Wow, look at that.

Another one, another one.

Gordon's struck gold.

Images like this of tigers
is precisely what we need.

Just look at that.

They are such amazing animals.

You know, if ever there was an
animal on this planet worth saving,

it has to be the tiger.

Gordon has four images,
but they may all be the same animal.

He'll have to leave his remote
cameras recording

until the end of the expedition,

and then compare all the images

to see how many
different tigers are living here.

In India, where tigers
are trapped in small areas,

George can easily
see them with his own eyes.

Look there, look at it!
Oh, my God.

Oh, look at that.

And there are two cubs.

There's an adult tiger,
about 100 yards from the car.

So that is a female with her
two cubs, who are about a year old.

Oh! They are beautiful, beautiful
animals. Oh, look at that.

They're practising their stalking.

Look at that. That is so beautiful.

It seems slightly unreal,
actually, I have to say.

I mean, seeing a tiger this close
in Bhutan would be just unthinkable.

I mean, it would never, ever happen.

It's a privilege to view.

But these young tigers
face an uncertain future.

When that male cub reaches a
certain age, he'll have to move on.

And it's not clear what he would do.

He can't certainly occupy the same
range as the other males in the park,

so he'll have to go.

It's unlikely he'll get
far beyond the park boundaries.

Even tigers within reserves
are no longer safe from poachers,

who supply
the Chinese medicine market

with tiger bones and body parts.

Even in the isolated populations,
where the big cats still survive,

they're under great threat.
They're being killed there as well.

But if we save tigers within the
last remaining isolated populations,

we still have a problem.

Because the long term survival

of just an isolated population
is in grave doubt.

To avoid genetic inbreeding,

male tigers need to roam over vast
distances to find new females.

Space is what Bhutan's forests could
offer tigers along the Himalayas.

This is just incredible.

This fog forms over the top
of the water,

it almost looks like
the river's on fire.

Oh, it's a cave.

It's a waterfall.

I'll bet this is home
to thousands and thousands of bats.

While the rafting team
makes camp for the night,

Steve hunts for signs of tigers.

OK, this is going to seem like

the most tenuous
bit of tracking out there,

but I have been asked to record
every one of the tracks

that fits a tiger profile,
no matter how degraded.

These tracks, well, they're
going in that direction,

but that's the first one I spotted.

They're coming back

down here...

..and...

this one, I think, is the clearest.

It's very circular,

seems to be heading
in this direction

and these look much more
like toes to me than they do hooves.

The next thing really
is just the size of it.

That is the perfect size...

..for a tiger track.

There's no way you
could say this was evidence,

but Alan will be able
to tell better than I can.

So I'm just going
to take this data back,

and hopefully he'll tell us more.

In India, George has spotted
a fully grown adult male.

There he is. Oh, God. Look.

Look at him! Absolutely magnificent.

Look at him, look at him.
Ah, look at that.

Look at that.

What a magnificent beast.

It's the most incredible animal.

I'm hooked.

I'm hooked now.

TIGER ROARS

Wow.

It's the first time I've
heard a tiger roaring like that.

ROARING
That noise is just amazing.

Pretty emotional, actually.

I feel very emotional.

I'm a bit shaky,
actually, after that.

Seeing them now so close,
it brings it home to me even more

what a tragedy it would be if these
animals were to ever become extinct.

The hope is that
we can help the tiger,

which is a very adaptable animal,
to increase.

And, you know, it's not hard to do.

It requires prey, it needs space.

We've just got to stop hunting
and poisoning and poaching

and allow the animal to move freely.

In reality, what you want
is a massive area

through which you can roam.

Currently, all you've got is little
fragments of original tiger habitat

which hold a few individuals,
and that won't work for very long.

We need to join these up
and I now see how it'll work.

If you can join these areas up
and tigers are able to move freely.

With so many people living in India,

there is little chance
of linking tiger reserves.

Along the less densely inhabited
Himalayas, carefully managed land

within a conservation corridor

would offer tigers safe passage
between isolated populations.

Creating one giant refuge
in which they can roam and breed.

ALAN: The tiger corridor
is an ambitious plan,

but it's a very, very doable plan.

It's become Alan's life's work.

Nine years ago, he was
diagnosed with incurable leukaemia.

There's not enough time for me.

I've got to spend whatever time I
have left

making sure that this
tiger corridor becomes a reality.

Making sure that tigers
are saved for the future.

I think about...

It's really interesting,
because I try not to think about

my leukaemia, and yet it's
in my mind every single day.

It's in the back of my mind
every waking hour,

because it drives me now.

It drives me to keep on doing
what I know I do best,

right up
until I can no longer do it.

The rest of the team
is inspired to work day and night.

Justine's trying a new tactic,

to learn more about what lives
alongside the big cats here.

So what I'm doing now is I'm going
to walk some of the trails at night.

With these elephants.

So I can conceal myself behind them,
but also,

their smell is quite domineering, so
hopefully it will disguise my smell.

These are all just ideas
I have and they may work.

If we cover enough distance,

we've got a good
chance of seeing some things.

And it's just nice to be
out walking in the forest

and not sitting and waiting.

I feel a bit more proactive.

Deep in the forest,

Gordon's remote cameras are
a secret window into this world...

..revealing behaviour which
would never otherwise be seen.

A sambar deer
stomps his forelegs nervously.

He's being stalked by wild dogs...

..ruthless predators
who hunt in packs.

A wild boar investigates the camera,
unaware of the shining eyes

of a leopard
just a few metres behind him.

And the ultimate reward -

a tiger, out hunting.

The remote cameras free up Gordon
to stalk the forest trails himself.

This time of day is when tigers,
leopards start to prowl about,

actually probably half an hour ago,

so I am walking along here half
expecting to bump into a big cat.

Most of the time,
kills take place at night time,

so that's why tigers
start to get active round about now.

Heavens above.

Oh, two.

Two porcupines.

There's no mistaking
what these creatures are.

There's nothing in this forest
you could confuse them for.

I've actually seen a tiger
with a porcupine quill

stuck in its throat,

so even something
as prickly as this is still...

a meal for a tiger.

Camouflaged by the elephant's
smell and sound,

Justine is hoping that the
wildlife won't noticed she's there.

Going around with these elephants

is the opposite
of being stealthy and quiet.

It's the opposite really of being
a predator or being a tiger.

I think it's probably a good thing
for prey animals

because we don't
seem like a threat to them.

We're not trying to stalk
them or trying to be quiet,

and they probably just think
we're a herd of elephants.

Her thermal imaging camera
picks up an animal's body heat

and makes them easy to spot
in the dark.

I've got something here.
Looks like a squirrel.

It should be climbing up.

It's going way up.

Wow, what was that?

It's a flying squirrel!

It just went
flying through the frame.

I didn't realise there
were flying squirrels here.

That's a great find.

Far to the east, Steve is
searching the banks of the river.

It's a little bit nerve-racking

wandering through this
tall grass at night,

knowing that this
could be tiger territory

and we could actually be being
watched by a tiger right now.

This is by far the biggest spider

I've seen in this part of the world,

and it is absolutely furious.
Look at it reared up.

That's wonderful.

This is a primitive spider.

All over the world,

they're known as tarantulas.

Big, hairy spiders,

they're heavy-bodied

with downward pointing fangs

and he's bound to have

small venom glands at the top here,

and a bite from this

would certainly really, really hurt.

Look how angry he is.

He's actually got...

just hanging from one fang

the wing from, I don't know...

could be a termite.

That is absolutely remarkable.

Justine's tactics
with the elephants are working.

Very bright eye-shine.

It's quite thick foliage in here.

Just see if I can get closer
to whatever's in here.

It's quite hard to work out
what it is exactly,

cos it's all curled up
having a snooze.

But it looks very much
like a civet to me.

It's actually waking up now.
Preening his tail.

Oh, you can see the head
much better now.

Big yawn.

It's definitely a civet.

He's having a good old lick
on his paw now.

Beautiful.

He's probably going to be busy
all night and then sleep all day.

Ah, look he's moving, he's moving.

That's really nice.

It's great on the thermal camera.

You can really see the shape.

Jump!

He's going to jump again.
There he goes.

That was great.

Gordon has found another pair
of eyes reflected in his torchlight.

Where are you? Oh!

There he is, there he is.

Oh, you beautiful little cat.

He's been looking
for the largest cat,

but has found the smallest,
a leopard cat.

Wow, he's tiny.

Is that a youngster? I wonder.

Yes.

Oh, this is what it is about.

He's on the move now.

He's kind of same size
as a domestic cat, much longer legs,

spotted like a leopard.

Beautiful.

You know these leopard cats,
they'll catch small rodents,

birds even.

Eating grass at the moment.

Whether it's a cat of this size

or whether it's a cat the size of a
tiger, there's just no denying them.

They're just perfect,
they really are.

Steve's search for footprints
has been frustrated by heavy rain

so he's switched tack.

Along the river,
there's a handful of communities,

rarely visited by outsiders.

Steve will try to gather
local intelligence

about whether they've seen tigers.

So we have someone.

When was it that you
saw this tiger and where?

HE SPEAKS NATIVE LANGUAGE

OK, this young man has seen a tiger
just up here,

down by the river,
two weeks ago

which is pretty incredible.

And where was it?

HE SPEAKS NATIVE LANGUAGE

So, he saw the tiger.

It was in the forest in the middle
of the daytime,

about 3 o'clock in the afternoon
and it saw him

and began to move away from him

and this
guy shouted at it and it ran off.

So...

So do you and your friends and you
family see tigers often,

many times, or is this a very
unusual thing for you?

HE SPEAKS NATIVE LANGUAGE

Um, yeah, this is really
quite striking news.

So he wasn't on his own,
there was three of them there -

his father
and someone else as well -

so it's not like
he's just kind of making it up,

and also when I asked
how often they see tigers,

he said maybe once a month,

sometimes every two months.

That is absolutely extraordinary.

There must be a phenomenal amount of
tigers moving through here

for there to be
any sightings at all,

let alone regular sightings.

Last thing that Alan said to
me before I left base camp

was that if you get any evidence
from people who live round here

that there are tigers here -

even just one person saying
that they've seen one -

then that's going to be massive,

and you don't get any more
definitive than that.

Heartened by success, Steve
continues on towards base camp.

Back in camp, Alan is marking all
confirmed tiger sightings on a map.

Expedition biologist Rebecca Pradan
has spent many years

trekking through western Bhutan,

where she's seen tigers
with her own eyes.

And when I saw that tiger,
I was just pinching myself.

Weren't you scared?

No, it's quite
a little bit far away,

so then after some time,
there's two things climb up.

It's a little bit like a dog little
bit smaller than a dog size cubs.

Both cubs were there.

So it was a female and two cubs?
That's terrific.

You've had more close tiger
encounters than I have ever had.

That's incredible. All of the data
is now coming together.

The fact that Rebecca has walked so
much of Bhutan

and has had first-hand sightings
of tigers right in front of her,

tiger prints right in front of her -
females and cubs -

all that is exactly
the kind of data we need.

And what this is showing
is that large areas of Bhutan

not only have tigers,
but have tiger populations breeding.

So the source population
that Bhutan will provide

for the overall
Himalayan tiger corridor now

is growing and growing as
we get more and more data.

With so many tiger populations
facing a genetic dead end,

Bhutan's extensive forests
could serve as a tiger nursery,

helping to repopulate
other areas of the Himalayas.

More than ever now I believe
that Bhutan is the key

to what I envisioned
as the Himalayan corridor.

If you think of the Himalayan
corridor as a body,

this really could be thought of as
the heart,

pumping blood out throughout
the entire body, keeping it alive.

Much of the rest of the body
is starting to die.

But this has the potential
to not only keep it alive,

but to invigorate
the rest of the body.

Up-river, Steve's expedition
has come to an abrupt halt.

Their path blocked
by a near impossible rapid,

they must judge whether
there's a safe route through.

Looks pretty scary. It does, doesn't
it? It's quite intimidating really.

It's a lot of water going downstream.

How do you feel about it?

Um...

My concern is that
if I make a mistake,

if I roll over up here somewhere
and can't get back up again

and get thrown
into that washing machine,

that would be, well it would be
awful. No. it wouldn't be much fun.

It's one of those rapids, you've
actually got to just pick your line,

look exactly where you go

and that's what you concentrate on
and you just go for it,

and make sure you nail it.

Hard left! Hard left! Hard left!

Come on, come on, come on!

Agh! Whoa!

Woo-hoo!

OK, Steve, can you hear me?

I can hear you fine, Dave.

That looked like a hell of a run
down the bottom, violent as anything.

Any advice for the raft
just before we head on down?

Just power left
through those waves to begin with

and make sure you go to the side
of that massive hole.

You can't miss seeing it,
but unfortunately I think you could
miss and get dragged into it.

You've just got to
power on through there, I think.

Woo! All forward.

This river better not
get any bigger than that.

That is my absolute limit.

But this place is out of this world.

Back in camp,
George is on bath duty.

This is great.

Alan has a new mission for him.

If Bhutan is to be at the heart
of a massive tiger corridor,

the team needs to discover

what local people think about
coexisting alongside big cats.

Alan has asked George to trek
to a settlement up river.

George this is a really, really
important trip that you're taking.

If the corridor is going to work,

we know we've got the tigers here -
the big cats -

and we know that the young males

are going to disperse
outward from here,

but we have to know if it can work

once they go out
into the human landscape,

where they pass by human settlements.

So some of the stuff that's going
to be really vital

is what people feel
about living among tigers.

If they value it? If they accept it?

If they're angry about it?

They're going to be one of our really
important pieces to the puzzle.

Rebecca will introduce him
to the people of Yumdang,

a small village
three hours' walk away.

Very wobbly!

I'm very scared on the bridge.

I thought you'd be used to this?

No, I walk, but I'm very scared

all the time.

They are not alone
on the forest path.

Ah!

I've been leeched.

There'll be other ones, I'm sure.

They're all God's little creatures.

Ah!

Look!

How did it get on my finger?

Even Eden has its problems.

I mean, look at this. Every time you
walk past,

you will find a leech
and they know exactly where you are.

I'm just holding my hand out and
it's hot and it's reaching out,

it's just desperate to get to me.

Oh! But I won't let you.

These are monsters.

That's going to bleed for a while.

In the east of Bhutan, Steve's
stopping at each remote community
along the Drangme Chhu valley

to ask whether they've seen tigers.

There are many sightings,
but the best is yet to come.

Just been chatting to this guy
through two separate interpreters

because he doesn't actually speak
the normal Bhutanese language.

He's a farmer who moves around an
awful lot around this area

and has just come down
with his cattle

to a place quite close to here.

HE SPEAKS NATIVE LANGUAGE

He think about this, maybe, in total.

In total when it was laid out.

Body like this,
and tail like this.

What is actually quite interesting
is that just two years ago,

they actually found a tiger cub.

He said it was about this size,

so it wasn't a young tiger cub -
probably a year or even more old.

The fact that you've got
a tiger that's with its mother,

that's moving through an area like
this is significant

because it's usually
the young males

that are going to be actually
travelling big distances

to set up big territories.

Far more likely if you've got
a mother with a young cub

that she is actually living around
here somewhere,

and that would actually
be quite a dramatic discovery.

News of breeding females in this
far eastern part of the country

is very good news indeed.

But even in these pristine forests,

tigers will only survive if people
accept predators on their doorstep.

You can't treat any habitat
or any place on its own.

You have to include
the human element.

And any efforts that you might do

to conserve any particular animal
or the whole habitat

has to include a human element,

because if you don't,
your efforts are futile.

Before getting a chance to ask any
questions,

George is welcomed into a village
game of kuru,

the local version of darts.

You have to throw the dart

at that object? What, from there?!

Not from there. From there to here.

You're throwing it from there
to here? That's quite a long way.

I'm so going to lose here!

I love the way
they indicate the target,

going, "Here, come on,
hit it, come on."

Are you going to stand there?
I haven't thrown this before.

What if I miss?

Oh!

He's doing fine, because
it's the first time he's playing,
so that's why.

I think he couldn't hit the target,

but after some time,
it's possible he may hit the target.

Somehow, George's team wins.

THEY SING

SHE LAUGHS

GEORGE JOINS IN CHANTING

THEY CHANT AND CHEER

After ten days exploring
the Drangme Chhu,

Steve and the rafting team
are approaching base camp.

During his dramatic, 100-kilometre
journey,

Steve has not only
found tiger tracks,

but has collected
many eye-witness accounts

of tigers living at several
different locations along the river.

Here they come.

Hey, look at you.

Hey, Alan, how are you doing?
I'm doing great, how about you?

Really good. You look great.

Wow, this is a strange sight.

Thank you very much.

How you been, buddy? Good. Great to
see you. Was it a good trip?

Really good. Oh, it was
absolutely incredible, yes. Really?

It's an amazing part of the world.

Well, before we go, you just have to
tell me did you find any evidence...

Yes. Yeah, yeah absolutely.
You're kidding?

Almost everyone we spoke to had
seen tigers.

The stories were,
I would say very, very strong.

Some of them had seen
them within weeks.

You're kidding?
No, absolutely serious.

They said, "Yeah, they come through
here quite regularly, I see their
paw prints on the beach,"

or, "Someone in my village
sees one every couple of months."

Well, that's great.
One guy actually found a tiger cub
within yards of his house.

That's phenomenal! It's very possible
there are actually populations living
along that whole riverine area.

That's great. God, great news.

To farmers with livestock,

news of wild predators living
close by may not be so welcome.

You obviously keep animals here, you
have cows and other domestic animals.

Have you ever heard of a case
when those animals have been eaten
or killed by wild animals?

Ah, right,
so if there was a wild cat,

say a tiger was to ever kill one
of your cattle, would you hunt it?

It seems to be a very
relaxed view of it.

In other areas of the world,

if a wild animal was to kill
a cow or something,

they would be up in arms about it.

Everyone would be hunting it
and make sure it

ended its eating spree,
so that's quite interesting.

You believe that humans and wild
animals can exist in sort of harmony?

Bye.

Bye-bye. Thank you for the food.

Generally, it seems that they have
quite a relaxed attitude
towards wild animals.

They're happy they're here, they're
happy that they have them around.

They believe that they should be in
harmony with the animals

and their habitat,
and they love the forest.

They think their forest
is absolutely great.

Such good will towards tigers
is extraordinary.

It's a hopeful sign that Bhutan

could be at the core of a successful
Himalayan tiger corridor.

Gordon is back in camp,
reviewing his remote cameras again.

If he has tiger images from several
locations,

Alan can work out the
population density in this area.

Got nothing on this one.

It's been fired by something
but I don't know what it is.

Up to now, he has captured
four tiger shots.

Yes! Look at that.

You beauty.

This is great, it really is.

Alan is going to be
very pleased with this.

Oh, you beautiful beast,
look at that.

Cool as a cucumber. They've got
a real swagger to them

that only
the king of the forest has.

They've got a real confidence.
There's nothing in this forest

that these tigers have to fear

and you can see it in the way
that they move. Strutting around.

The only way of distinguishing
one tiger from another

is by looking at closely
at their stripes.

Once you start looking at
these tigers in detail,

you realise that the stripe pattern
is completely different.

They are as different
to each other as humans are.

OK.

HE EXHALES
Very good.

Gordon has captured
11 different tiger images.

Now he and Alan have to distinguish
one animal from another.

Look at this one shot which we did.

Now we compared striping patterns

of this individual -
which is a beautiful side shot -

to that individual.

Another great - pretty great -
side shot. Cool.

Pulled a single pattern out,
and overlapped them.

Perfect, like a fingerprint.
Isn't that great?

OK, that's great, except it means
that those two shots are one tiger.

This is true of several
of the pictures.

Now, there's one other shot.

Really nice, look at that,
steps over the stream.

Good behaviour. Nice behaviour shot.

We're comparing that to this tiger,

coming straight, but we
can look at these side stripes.

We can overlay those sides.

We can shift it,

not at all.

So here we have clear,
beautiful, two individual tigers.

Let's say out of all those shots
we have, I think,

possibly three
individual tigers at least...

That's incredible.
..in a 40, 50 square kilometre area.

That's a good density.

That's really good in this area.

That would be about six tigers per
100 square kilometres. That's a lot.

That's a really good density.

Bhutan doesn't just have
a handful of tigers.

The evidence the team's collected
from east to west

points to a high
natural density of this big cat,

stretching across the
southern half of the country.

There's just one final
piece of the puzzle.

The team need to discover whether
Bhutan's tigers

are roaming
into the mountainous north.

If they are, huge areas of the
Himalayas

can be included in
the proposed tiger corridor.

Now Gordon's returning
to check the remote cameras

he left recording at high altitude
at the start of the expedition.

George will assist him.

It's quite exciting,
because all this time

that I've been at base camp,

the camera traps
that I laid up in the Himalayas,

they've been clicking away
and recording images up there.

The real important part
of this expedition now

is to find out if tigers can exist
higher up in the Himalayas.

In the final phase, George spots
a big cat on the edge of camp...

(It's behind you.)

..Steve is stalked
by a snow leopard...

If a snow leopard
can take down a yak,

it certainly
wouldn't struggle with me.

And I don't know
where the hell I am.

..and Gordon makes
the discovery of a lifetime.

Oh, my gosh!

Oh, my gosh!

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