All language subtitles for Mountain Lions Big Cats in High Places BBC Natural World 2015 1080p HDTV EN Sub_Subtitles01.ENG

This is North America's big cat.

Known as a mountain lion
or a cougar.

They appear powerful...

COUGAR HISSES AND SNARLS

..intimidating...

COUGAR HISSES

..and deadly.

But incredibly, very little
has been discovered about them...

..until now.

This film follows a year in the life

of two amazing mountain lion
families nestled in the Rockies.

MAN: Going hot.

They are part of the most
intense study ever carried out on

mountain lions in North America.

By sharing intimate moments in the
secretive lives of these families

and their neighbours...

..scientists are finally revealing

the true nature of
North America's big cat.

Mountain lions can be found

right across the western states
of the USA.

Not that you'd know it.

They're wary, elusive creatures...

..ghostly figures on the landscape.

Which is why hard scientific
evidence about their behaviour

is thin on the ground.

It's generally been assumed that
mountain lions are solitary animals

and that the only interactions
between adults

either result in mating or violence.

But now those assumptions
are being challenged.

Just north of Jackson, Wyoming,

the scientists of
Panthera's Teton Cougar Project

have been carrying out the most
exhaustive study ever conducted

into mountain lions in the USA.

She's here.

There. If you kind of get onto this
first shelf and go around that way.

Under the leadership of
Mark Elbroch,

the team have been using
the latest in GPS technology

to track mountain lions.

She's moved quite a bit,
which is good,

so we should get in there
and set some cameras. Sounds good.

And then record their behaviour on
video cameras.

They're using 13 years of data
and thousands of video clips

to re-write our understanding of
mountain lion behaviour.

Oh, let's have a look
at what this is.

They also hope to answer one
burning question.

In our study area,
the population of mountain lions

has dropped by about half in

the last seven to eight years.

And our goal has really been

to figure out why.

Like any big Hollywood film
the project has its stars -

two, in fact.

The first is known as F61.

When I think of a successful
mountain lion

she is the one I think of.

F61 is strong,
she's physically able,

she's the most competent hunter.

She is really the epitome of a
successful mountain lion.

F61 currently has two,
one-year-old kittens.

A male...

..and a female, who is
affectionately known as Frostbite.

They're almost as big
as their mother,

but there's no doubt
who's in charge.

SHE HISSES

Despite the kittens' size, they're
still dependent on their mother.

It will be another six months before
they will have learnt how to hunt

and all the skills they will
need to survive on their own.

Their neighbour in the study area is
the other star of the project.

F51.

Having filmed her for several years,

Mark has noticed her parenting style
is quite different.

51 does not provide for her kittens
as well as 61 does.

51 is a loose,

you might even say like a
hippy mother,

just providing lots of love,

but not necessarily all
the sustenance they need.

Thanks to "Easy-going" F51,

"Super Mum" F61, and other cats,

Mark has been granted an incredible
insight into

the world of the mountain lion.

He's witnessed intimate moments of
mountain lions playing...

..eating together...

..and caching their kills,
covering them up to minimise

the chances of a scavenger
stealing a free meal.

He's also been able to witness some
truly unique moments in their lives.

In this video we caught something
incredibly rare.

Note the carcass.

F61 and F51 are about to appear.

Don't blink.

F51 and 61.

And 61 wins and takes off.

It's just a very quick,
lightning speed,

mountain lion speed you might say,

they fought over the carcass
and 61 ran off with it.

Amidst the thousands of videos
Mark has studied,

documenting dozens of interactions,

this video is one of just four
in which there is any violence.

We've come to realise
by doing this research

that physical contact is not
the rule, it's the exception.

Mark has many videos that record
non-violent interactions,

and the first footage
Mark ever captured of a meeting

between two female mountain lions
is a good example.

Here comes a nine-year-old resident
female, and she comes round,

she turns, and here comes a
six-year-old female.

She's doing mild hissing.

And in the beginning we thought,

"Gosh, all that hissing -
it's the pre-runner to violence.

"It's super aggressive."

No, hissing seems pretty normal

now that we've seen it
over and over and over again.

So, what happened next?

They spent two days together
and this is what they did.

They shared a meal.

It blew me away.

Having now viewed thousands of
videos,

Mark has concluded that most of the
previously held assumptions about

mountain lions are wrong.

We're beginning to describe a species
that has some sort of social system,

that is interacting with a frequency
that challenges this idea that

they are solitary animals.

And it's just opening our eyes
and completely turning everything

on its head on what we thought were
the social lives of mountain lions.

"Easy-going" F51 has recently given
birth to a new litter of kittens.

KITTENS SQUEAK

As this incredible footage reveals,

for the first five weeks of life
the kittens remain in their den,

living off their mother's milk.

But their mother, F51, will still
need to hunt during this period.

So, while she's several miles away,

Mark and his team slip in to assess
the kittens' health.

MARK: Someone hold that one nice
and tight.

We're good. Here we go.

I hear 'em. I hear kittens.

SQUEAKING

OK, we got one.

OK, little buddy. It's all right.
There's our first kitten.

Oh, my goodness. Oh.

All right. Nicely done. Beautiful.

The team have limited time to work
before F51 returns.

OK. Number two.

Oh, nice biting pretty hard.

All right. There we go.

Looks like a male to me.

Number three.

Holy mackerel, watch that back leg.

Here we go. Coming out.

Even at this early age the kittens
have distinct personalities.

This guy's... He's a loose cannon.

Whoever's holding this bag,
do not let go.

He is our most lively cat to date.

All right. We're good.
Let's get some work done.

Each kitten is weighed...

This one is three and a half pounds.
That is small.

..and sexed.

And we hold it like that,
this is a female.

Then each one is fitted
with a special expandable

kitten-sized radio collar.

This the part where you try not to
get bit.

And then we go one ear at a time.

Like so.

Beautiful.

Only when the kittens are bigger
will they be given a GPS version.

RADIO HISSES
She is online.

Each kitten is allocated
a study number and an ear tag.

The number of this female
is going to be 99.

WOMAN: F99. Correct.

Monitoring kittens is a key part of
the Cougar Project's work.

Tagged, collared.
You checked the collar?

This is a critical age for
kitten survivorship.

And many don't even make it to
the first steps beyond the den.

But here we'll be able to track
these four kittens

and see whether they survive
to disperse on their own.

The kittens' chances of making it to
adulthood are not good.

KITTEN HISSES

HOWLING

HOWLING

Wolves were recently reintroduced
into this area of Wyoming.

Not only do they compete for
available prey, like elk and deer,

but wolf packs will often chase a
mountain lion off a kill.

Worse still, they will kill any
kittens they come across.

Mountain lions are also threatened
by humans.

They can legally be hunted at this
time of year,

and being collared and clearly part
of a scientific study

offers no protection.

Even the weather poses a threat.

This is a particularly harsh
environment.

We get frigid temperatures,
deep snow.

HOWLING

There's all these dominant predators
here,

competitors with mountain lions
that threaten youngsters.

So, it's incredibly hard for
small kittens to survive.

But the arrival of winter,

with long periods of sub-zero
temperatures, is not all bad news.

For the scientists
it's also a time of opportunity.

This is capture season.

Fresh snow gives Mark and the team
the best chance of tracking

and capturing adult mountain lions

so they can add them to
the study group.

It's essential work if
their research is to be successful.

This time last year
we were monitoring 15 animals -

there was nine adults
and six kittens.

Now as we enter this capture season
we're down to six cats.

And that's because cats have been
killed, cats have dispersed,

collars have malfunctioned.

And now we're trying to boost back up

to maintain our research for
the next coming year.

The team have been joined by
Boone Smith and his father Sam,

experienced mountain lion houndsmen.

We're off. We'll go get 'em.

Yeehaw.

Today the team are on the hunt
for a particularly large cat

known as the "Crystal Male".

His nickname is a reference to a
nearby creek,

and Mark has made several
unsuccessful attempts

to capture him before.

All right. Let's catch this guy.

They got a track right there, man.

Dogs are winding it.

The "Crystal Male" is currently
the only resident male in

the study area, so understanding
how he interacts with

the females like F51 and F61
is crucial to Mark's research.

We've been following the cat for
about a mile and a half.

He's come up here
and then he's rolled.

Thrown himself to this side
several times.

You can see the back of him, with
all the fur sticking in the snow.

And then his footprints.
We call these stand-up prints.

You can see that this has gone all
crispy from the heat of the body.

He spent enough time here
that he melted the snow,

and so when he stood up in it,
it freezes those first few tracks.

And then he goes off
and nice fresh tracks.

The tracks are so recent
the team ready the hounds.

If they get close to a mountain lion

it will instinctively take refuge
in a tree

allowing the scientists to catch up
and hopefully capture it.

HOUNDS HOWL AND BARK

Right now they're on top of
the rock line.

Depending on the chase, it may
be minutes, or possibly hours,

before the team see
the hounds again.

Say your lion, come right here.

See when he goes back.
Think he goes back.

I don't know, Sam. Huh? No.

We got a long haul.

Having started at sun-up,

they finally reach the barking dogs
late in the afternoon.

DOGS BARK

The dogs have successfully chased
their quarry up a tree.

He's big!

But with sunset less than an hour
away, Mark must work quickly.

It's so exciting.

It looks like we are going to
catch the "Crystal Male,"

who has eluded us for two years.
And he's a big boy.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, big boy.

And we tighten it.

The plan is to anaesthetise
the cat using a dart gun.

Going hot.

You ready?

COUGAR GROWLS

Time? 3.45.

He's going to go down this time.

But the "Crystal Male" is not
going to go easily.

He's jumping.

He's trying to come out,
he's coming down the other side.

DOGS BARK AND HOWL

COUGAR GROWLS
All right, no, no dogs!

Where's the bag?

I got him. I'm with you, go.

By the time Mark and the team
catch up with the drugged cat,

night is falling.

OK, go ahead, Mark.

Here, I need your head lamp.
Shine over here.

The "Crystal Male" is so big,
the collar they have only just fits.

The collar's on.

So, I think when he relaxes,

it's going to be actually
a pretty good fit.

There you go.

The cat is given its study number,
M85.

Having checked his vital signs,
the team retreat to minimise

disturbance as he comes round.

After a brief night's sleep,

the team are eager to see if the
collar is working correctly.

We captured him right on
the edge of this cliff

and he's moved up there and then down
along the cliff,

and this is his usual
travel route.

We've seen his sign all along here,

and he's going to just
go back to his routine,

heading into
the centre of his home range.

Super.

That will probably keep him

beyond the typical movements
of hunters, so it's nice to see.

Capturing M85 was particularly
exciting for our research project.

Our study area is quite vast,

I mean, it's over
2,000 square kilometres

and these males have
VAST territories.

Four times, sometimes,
the size of a female territory.

Overlaying M85's movements with
data from F51, F61

and other females in the study area,
will be a significant contribution

to the project's understanding of
male-female mountain lion dynamics.

Large herds of wintering elk are
the main food source for

mountain lions at this time of year.

"Easy-going" F51 must average
between

three and four kills every month
to feed her young family.

They face other pressures, too.

Night-time temperatures have
plummeted to -25 degrees centigrade.

Several of the kittens have lost
the tips of their ears

and tails to the extreme cold.

If these unusually low
temperatures persist, Mark knows

the kittens may struggle to survive.

That's a kitten, isn't it?

Oh, my God. We've got a dead kitten.

Oh.

The radio collar clearly
identifies the body

as one of F51's young kittens.

It was inevitable, but, yeah...

There are no signs of
a predator nearby.

OK, got the family group
coming out this way.

So, Mark examines the body to try
and determine the cause of death.

Skull's intact.

I live mountain lions.

I track them,
I watch videos of them,

I go to sleep at night
and I dream about mountain lions.

It's such a privilege to be able to
work with a species like this.

But when I come across the actual
body of a dead mountain lion,

I almost go numb
and the scientist takes over.

Observe, record,
figure out what happened.

External wounds essentially
non-existent.

I see absolutely no trauma, no signs.

But that night it'll hit me.

They're part of my world.

You know, I'm following their lives
every day...

and then it's a loss.

So small.

It looks like the kitten may have
died from exposure,

possibly after
falling into a nearby stream.

The harsh conditions persist,
keeping predators

and prey low down in the valleys.

So it's not surprising that F51's
young family suffers another

death a few weeks later.

HOWLING

Her family were feeding on a carcass
and a wolf pack came in

and chased them up the mountain
and away.

And one kitten disappeared on
the landscape.

There was no sign of that
kitten ever again.

"Easy-going" F51 has now lost
half of her original litter of four.

It'll be another year before
her remaining six-month-old

kittens are able to
fend for themselves.

It just goes to show how
successful her neighbour,

"Super Mum" F61, has been.

She has managed to raise two
kittens from a litter of three

almost to adulthood.

Frostbite and her brother are
the mountain lion

equivalent of teenagers.

But like adolescents the world over,

they show little appreciation
for their mother's efforts.

Her son, in particular,
is trying to assert his dominance.

MOTHER COUGAR GROWLS

Soon these youngsters will leave to
establish their own territories.

When they do, their mother may well
look for a male to mate with

and have another litter.

The most likely candidate is M85,
the "Crystal Male."

Since being collared, Mark has
followed his movements closely.

A process that has given him
a unique opportunity to witness

some extraordinary
mountain lion behaviour.

This particular day
I will remember forever.

It took us nearly two hours to locate
where M85 was on this mountain

and I set up the scope,
and we had this camera rolling,

and then this happened.

Something I never expected to see.

Here are three adult mountain lions
moving on the landscape.

That is not antisocial,
that is not solitary.

Three adult mountain lions -

two females sharing the male, if you
will, like a resource, and then the

snow came in and made it impossible
to track their movements,

but then when it cleared,
we watched M85 mating with

another mountain lion ten feet away.

Never in my wildest dreams would
I have predicted such

an encounter and as far as I know,
this has never ever been documented.

One reason that M85 might
be in such demand

is that he's one of the few males
left in the study area.

M29, the father of F51's kittens,
was shot recently by hunters,

which means breeding male mountain
lions are in short supply.

However, M29's remaining offspring
and their mother are thriving.

And if "Easy-going"
F51 can shepherd them

successfully through the
final weeks of winter,

their chances of continued survival
will improve dramatically.

Now, with spring just around the
corner, life should get easier.

But data from F51's collar
reveals disturbing news.

That doesn't make any sense at all.

The e-mail is an alert.

"Mortality Data"
means that F51's collar

hasn't moved at all for 18 hours.

It may just have fallen off,
but what's concerning is that

the GPS data shows that F51
and M85 have crossed paths.

While Mark's research has shown that
mountain lion fights are rare,

the signs are ominous.

Mark heads off to solve the mystery.

On his way, he scans the snow
for clues.

Something's going up and down here
I want to look at.

Here she is.
Here they are running across.

Look at the size of M85's footprints.

Big. Right here.

The trail leads Mark towards the GPS
point indicated by the collar.

This is it.

F51 and her family
came down this chute.

And they must have been
making noise,

kicking rocks or calling,
kittens playing, who knows?

And M85 comes up right here,
right off his kill,

and they engage for the
first time right here.

And it's boom!

It's just covered in cat fur.
These cats are actually fighting.

In ten years of studying mountain
lions, I've seen this once before.

Fur everywhere. Look at them.

They've rolled over
and they've gone down hill,

and there's the first sign blood.

You can see they've slid down
the hill down here.

Let's just keep following it down.

Oh, my gosh. I think
I can see something from here.

Ah.

This is exactly what you don't
want to see.

Phew.

Oooh, it looks bad.

Unbelievable.

Ah.

Oh...

It's F51.

She's been killed by a bite
to the head.

51.

How many times I've seen her in the
wild, slipping around a corner.

This is a huge loss for us,
a huge loss for the project.

Just going to remove the collar.

And so she started a
wild mountain lion

and she'll end a wild mountain lion.

One question answered.
We now know what happened to F51.

But now the next question is,
what's happening with her kittens?

All right. Well...yeah.

Their future is bleak.

The tracks in the snow tell Mark
what has happened,

but there seems to be no
answer to the question, why?

Spinning through the project's video
archive doesn't help either.

There are plenty of instances
of males interacting with females,

but none result in violence, even
if the female has kittens with her.

Every time we've seen a male
approach a female outside courtship,

this is exactly what they do.
They slink in.

Notice how low he's holding his body
to the ground.

Notice how his ears are to the side
and almost sagging.

They minimise their profile,
they try to look smaller.

It is completely non-aggressive,
non-threatening in every way.

He clearly just wants to
share a meal

and you can see as he comes in,
F61, there's no hissing,

there's nothing, she just watches.

She doesn't place herself
in between her kitten and him,

and it's the kitten that does
all the hissing.

There they are.

Massive resident adult male,
feeding on the carcass,

three-month-old kitten and mother
falling asleep in the background.

F51's orphaned kittens are now
eight months old,

and can only be tracked with
basic radio technology,

making it difficult to
pin-point their location.

Since their mother's death,
they haven't been seen.

Only the rhythmic heartbeat of the
radio signal tells

the team that the
kittens are still alive.

The primary challenge that these
kittens face is starvation.

Research would suggest that they have
absolutely no chance at survival.

That most kittens orphaned,
less than one year old will die.

At least the spring thaw means F51's
orphans won't freeze to death.

And, four weeks after losing their
mother, they've reached

the spot where Mark will be able to
get a good look at them.

FAINT CLICKING

You hear that? There they are.

I'll bet you they're down the
river bottom and let's see

if we can have a look.

All right. Let me grab my pack.

Mark knows he has to
tread carefully.

He could easily scare
the kittens away.

Oh!

I've got one.

She's...She's eating this nasty,
nasty elk carcass.

Well, that answers one question.

They've been surviving
for a month on their own,

and this is the perfect time
because all this food's appearing.

Look at that.

She's tearing into that old elk. Oh!

Incredible. Where is her sister?

Where is her sister?

I've got her.

She's just lying out there. Right
in the open. Oh, beautiful!

Incredible. I can't believe
we can see them.

They look great. They're
healthy, they're stocky.

So great to see them
feeding on carcasses,

but it's dangerous.

Everybody else feeds on
carcasses too.

To be near something so smelly can
draw in grizzly bears,

black bears, wolves.

If they're not careful, they
could be food themselves.

If their mother had still
been alive,

the kittens would have remained
within a fairly defined range.

Without her influence,
the orphans roam far

and wide to scavenge for food.

They're not the only cats
on the move.

Springtime usually sees
adolescent mountain lions

leaving their mother to
establish their own territories.

It's often the biggest challenge
they will ever face.

It's an uncertain time in the sense
that they face unknown dangers.

They are navigating in between
the territories

of established mountain lions.

They are trying to find a place
where they have

other mountain lions nearby, so that
they can socialise and mate,

and also have the resources
in terms of prey

that can sustain them
and their future families.

"Super Mum" F61's son has gone
north, out of the study area,

but her daughter, Frostbite,
has remained close to home.

So, I'm just going to pull up
Frostbite's data.

It's really been fun to watch her
sort of explore and try to disperse,

if you will, and then return to her
mother a couple of times.

So here, for instance,
we saw a little exploratory journey

out into the National Park

and then, finally, started
moving south.

And, of course, she's following the
natural terrain, just following the

mountains down and she follows them
straight down to the town of Jackson.

She's been the perfect mountain lion,

in the sense that nobody knows
that she's there.

Despite her proximity to town,
Frostbite appears to be doing well.

This mule deer carcass
may be evidence

of her first independent kill.

Remote cameras are set up.

Under the cover of darkness,
Frostbite reveals herself.

She's doing super.

She's on her own,
she's surviving, she's hunting,

she's establishing a territory.

She's doing everything we would hope
that a disbursing mountain lion

would have the
opportunity to do.

Frostbite has proved that she has
the skills to survive on her own,

even in a noisy neighbourhood.

F51's orphaned kittens have yet
to develop their survival skills.

Small prey like squirrels might
supply them with enough to eat.

But that would depend on them
catching one.

Mark's video archive offers
an insight

into the challenges the
nine-month-old orphans face.

This video is particularly difficult
to watch.

F61 has maimed a fawn and left her
kittens to figure it out.

And you can see these two kittens,
which are 12 months old,

have no idea how to kill it.

They're batting it
and trying to figure out

how to turn this into food.

This is important because it
illustrates how in-equipped kittens

are to survive on their own
even at one year old,

and how dependent upon their mothers
they are even at this age.

Mark had not expected the kittens
to survive longer than

a month on their own.

Somehow they have scraped by,
scavenging from carcasses

they have found.

Both are smaller than they
should be, but while one of them

looks alert, the other is lethargic,

clearly struggling.

Now, ten weeks
after their mother's death,

Mark heads out to check on
them again.

For one the struggle has
proved too much.

Mark finds the corpse of the
weaker kitten, F75.

I can only imagine that...
she starved to death,

which is not surprising given that

the last time we saw her
she looked bony.

Her hips were jutting out, you could
see that she was significantly

slimmer, skinnier than her sister.

You know, we'll keep following F99
and hope for the best.

F99 is now the sole
survivor of F51's final litter.

Holy mackerel.

Watch that back leg. There we go.

The number of this
female is going to be 99.

F99. Correct.

F99's chances of continued survival
will depend on her learning

to hunt on her own.

Scavenging food from old kills
is inherently risky.

Carcasses attract all
sorts of predators.

Even other scavengers are a threat.

Circling vultures indicate
a carcass is nearby.

But these bald eagles aren't willing
to share the spoils.

On this occasion, F99 is chased
away, hungry but unhurt.

Surprisingly, over the next few
weeks she appears to put on weight.

It's just a hunch,

but Mark and his team suspect she
may have figured out how to hunt.

No sign of her, huh?

The only way to be sure is to fit
her with a GPS collar and watch

for the telltale cluster of data
points that could indicate a kill.

Gorgeous. That's what we want to eat.

So, they set a baited trap
to lure her in.

Nice little treasure for her.

There she goes.

The lure works.

There.

OK, you ready? On three -
one, two, three.

Once she's been anaesthetised, she's
kept wet to stop her overheating.

Now Mark can fit her collar
and check her health.

So, F99 looks
way better than I expected.

She's thin, she's small,

she's essentially a stunted version
of a mountain lion,

just barely half of what I expected
her to weigh at this time.

16. 16. She's about...

36 pounds.

But she looks really well.

She's actually got, you know,
musculature developing.

She's all right.

There's one development that is
a particularly good sign.

Here her adult teeth have
begun to come in.

They're not full-size yet,

but they're big enough to do
some hunting.

Having confirmed that
F99 is healthy

and has the weaponry to make a kill,

the team follow her movements
closely over the next few days.

Almost immediately a suspicious
cluster of points

draws Mark into the field.

Yes! She's killed something.
Look at the fur!

It's the remains of a coyote pup,
which the orphan has picked clean.

That's the tail. She even gave
a good chew on that.

This is a big deal.

She killed something with teeth,
something that could fight back.

This is a turning point.
She might just make it

and survive the winter.

F99 has surprised us at every turn.

The fact that she learned to
hunt on her own.

And survived in a landscape with
predators and people

and all sorts of other dangers.

Throughout this entire year,
she has persevered.

I remember one of the bits
of video that we caught,

she's under this tree, in this vast
meadow, and it's pouring rain.

And there she is, this tiny
little mountain lion, alone.

And you just feel how alone
she is and so...

it's warming to see
when she's doing well.

F99 is not the only one
at a turning point.

The scientists of the Teton Cougar
Project are presenting

their findings to the
wider scientific community.

This young female still lives
locally and is doing quite well.

Mark's work is pretty amazing
because he's using new

technology to really teach us new
things about this keystone predator.

So many things that we haven't
known about cougars that are

coming to light through this work.
It's just astonishing.

A lot of the things that we're
learning shows us

how highly social cougars are and
the cougar to cougar interactions

are just extremely powerful.

The project's work is also solving
the riddle behind the dramatic

drop in mountain lion numbers.
There are two governing factors.

So, as wolves increased
in the system,

all three age classes
dropped in survivorship.

The reintroduction of wolves has had
a dramatic effect

on a kitten's chances
of making it to adult.

Only 20 kittens out of 100 survive
until they're 18 months old,

and most of them are killed by
other predators.

When it comes to adult
mountain lions,

one factor accounts for a staggering
49% of all deaths in the study area.

GUNSHOT

Hunting.

The dual impacts of competition with
the new wolves in a place

where you already had existing human
harvest on mountain lions is

resulting in a decline in
this population.

Mark's figures show that the only
realistic way to stabilise

the mountain lion numbers
is by dramatically reducing

the amount of hunting.

But striking a balance between the
interests of conservationists

and hunters is likely to be
difficult.

The agents that are responsible
for managing hunting quotas

generates much of its income
from the sale of hunting licences.

We've really worked to use

the best available information

to use decades

and centuries of expertise

and education in order to learn
about the wildlife populations

that we're responsible
to manage correctly.

It would be extremely controversial

if we got rid of hunting in the
state of Wyoming or in other areas.

F99 is now a year
and three months old,

which means she could
legally be hunted.

But for the time being,

she's managed to avoid both hunters
and wolves.

She's sitting now.
I can really see her.

Front part of her looks good.

But I can tell she's
finding it hard.

She's lost some
weight in the last month.

She killed a porcupine recently

and I think I can make out
a quill right here.

And that's concerning,
because porcupine quills,

they have barbs in one direction
and so the more you move your skin,

they go deeper and deeper and deeper,
they naturally won't come out.

She's going to have to pull it out.

But...if any cat could survive,
this is her.

I think she's going to make it.

Mark's hopes prove ill-founded.

Two weeks later,

F99 died from internal injuries
caused by the porcupine's quills.

In contrast, F61's daughter,
Frostbite,

has successfully established her
territory, avoiding hunters

and predators,
enduring freezing temperatures

and making enough kills to survive.

Thanks to her and all
the mountain lions

that the Teton Cougar Project
has followed over the years,

our understanding of these
cats has been revolutionised.

Their long-term future, however,
depends on how we apply this

new-found knowledge.

For Frostbite and the other
mountain lions here,

life remains on the edge.