Original subtitles

(♪♪♪)

In the cutthroat world of hunter and hunted,

it's good to be an apex predator.

Africa has several top dogs,

but only one of them is an actual dog.

Prey animals can meet their death by pack,

pride...

(Lion roaring)

Or ambush.

(Hyenas squealing)

Different predators, different strategies,

each effective in their own way.

All on the attack.

(♪♪♪)

(♪♪♪)

(Lions roaring)

Lions,

feared,

revered.

The legendary king of the beasts.

But of all the big cats, they're not the biggest,

they're not the fastest.

Proportionality speaking, they're not even the strongest.

So what makes lions seem so regal?

What makes them king?

The simple answer...

Pride.

(♪♪♪)

Lions work together as a pride to kill their prey.

And that allows them to attack, not only larger prey,

but allows them to get a much more consistent prey,

because they can help each other.

Now, the adaptations of hunting in groups

really is to do with the females.

(♪♪♪)

They cooperate with each other when they're stalking,

so that they can create the greatest amount of confusion

when they eventually charge.

And the prey,

they don't know which way to run.

Lionesses can run close to 50 miles per hour,

but only for short bursts.

So hunting some of the fastest animals on the continent

means they have to get creative.

To make up for poor stamina,

they stay out of sight as much as possible.

This also gives them a shot at an ambush,

hiding in long grass near a water source,

waiting for a thirsty prey to wander

within striking distance.

Once the lioness downs her prey,

a quick chokehold crushes its throat,

cutting off the airway.

The pride then butchers the flesh

with molars like meat shears.

(♪♪♪)

That level of teamwork reaches far beyond the hunt.

Prides are made up of relatives.

All of the females are related to each other

and therefore, all the babies are related to each other

and they tend to all give birth at the same time.

And that means that because they're relatives,

the one female is perfectly happy to suckle

any of the babies in the group.

They may not be her own babies,

but they're for sure gonna be her grandchildren

or nephews and nieces.

So she can act as the nursemaid and a wet nurse at that,

while the other ones are catching the food

and supplying the group.

The males rarely hunt,

but they contribute in a different way.

They defend their territory and resources

from competing hyena clans and other lion prides.

The males patrol territories of up to 100 square miles,

defending their turf from rivals.

The stakes are high.

An invading pride will kill all the local cubs

and dominate the lionesses to swell its own ranks.

Repelling an invading pride

demands brute strength and strategy.

New research suggests

that lions can actually determine the size

of a competing pride by counting it's roars.

With that information,

they can decide to attack or hold back.

It's like a finely-tuned military operation

and the survival of their pride hangs in the balance.

This devotion to the pride,

essential to survival and unique among big cats

is why lions are rightly called king.

Lions get all the glory and hyenas get none.

Demonized as ugly, noisy scavengers

that steal other animals' kills, hyenas have an image problem.

Fact is, they're misunderstood.

(Hyenas squealing)

Yes, they scavenge,

but they're also brilliant pack-hunters,

downing large preys like wildebeests and zebra.

It's true that hyenas also prey on the young,

the old and the weak,

even disembowelling them alive.

(Groaning)

And they do it all with a big ugly smile

and a blood-curdling cackle.

(Hyenas cackling)

So it's not hard to see why hyenas are such an easy animal

for people to hate.

(Hyenas squealing)

Except that many other predators commit the same easy kills,

including the noble and brave lion.

As it turns out,

the difference between hyenas and many other predators

is only skin-deep.

Despite their skulking-scavenger reputation,

hyenas actually hunt and kill 95% of their prey.

Don't let their looks fool you.

Hyenas are intelligent and even brave.

And they heroically protect their kills

from marauding larger predators.

They care for each other

and can hear a pack member's distress calls

from 6 miles away.

These adaptations have made them a Serengeti success story.

Hyenas are much more numerous than lions are.

We've got maybe 2,000 lions in Serengeti.

There's about 7,000 hyenas.

Hyenas wear down their prey

through sheer numbers and endurance.

They count on the energy of the pack,

not an individual,

even taking turns leading the chase.

By hunting in packs,

it allows them to pull down a bigger prey

than they would be able to do if they were on their own.

Once they've run their prey to exhaustion on the openplanes,

the pack moves in for the kill.

For hyenas, hunting is a team sport.

Anything to get the job done.

But the rules around feeding aren't open to interpretation.

This is a matriarchal society.

Females rank highest, so they eat first.

Then, the pubs.

And then, the males.

Any hungry jokers, who get caught jumping the kill,

will get a walloping to remember from the boss lady.

They also must endure the pestering

of obnoxious and higher-ranking juveniles

or risk violent reprimand.

Savage brutality isn't the only method of discipline.

That shrill cackle can also be used to resolve disputes.

(Cackling)

Studies have revealed that the pitch of a laugh

reveals age,

and the frequency indicates social rank.

We only get these packs out on the open treeless plains

of the Serengeti.

Once you get into the woodlands of the Serengeti,

which is 2/3rds of Serengeti,

then the hyenas are solitary and they feed only on small prey.

Because they can adapt to

whatever the Serengeti has to offer,

they will almost never go hungry.

A recent study, conducted at Duke University,

pitted chimpanzees against the spotted hyenas

in a battle of wits.

To be clear,

spotted hyenas are not smarter than chimpanzees,

but amazingly,

they are fully capable of outperforming chimps

in cooperative problem-solving tests.

2 chimpanzees required extensive training and cooperation

to complete the same challenge

the 2 spotted hyenas were able to crack in just a few minutes.

In the wild, this problem-solving teamwork

can be the difference between life and death.

Traditionally, people think of hyenas as being scavengers.

In fact, they're only scavengers in certain circumstances,

often when they're on their own, when they're hunting singly.

And they're obviously extremely successful

because they're very numerous in a system.

Even scavenging sometimes takes ingenuity.

If hyenas see vultures circling in the distance,

they know where to go for an easy meal.

Spotted hyenas weigh 175 pounds.

That's half the weight of a lion,

but incredibly, they have the same bite force,

1,000 pounds per square inch.

So if they find bones already picked clean,

they can still crush and eat them

to extract the nutritious marrow inside.

A big cat wouldn't bother and that alone is the reason

why these incredible survivors deserve more respect.

They might not be pretty,

but hyenas always get the last laugh.

(Hyenas cackling)

For any animal to survive in the wilds of Africa,

keeping up with the competition is critical.

Some use strategy.

Some use strength.

Cheetahs use speed.

Their perfectly-adapted bodies

can catch dinner in less than 30 seconds.

(♪♪♪)

Leave the brute strength to the lions and hyenas,

at less than 2-feet tall and barley 110 pounds,

the cheetah is built for speed.

It can reach speeds of up to a 100-kilometers an hour.

That is twice that of a grey hound dog.

It's more than twice of the fastest human on Earth.

It takes more than small size to reach that velocity.

Compared to other land mammals of the same weight,

a very large proportion of their body

is made out of skeletal muscles.

These are the muscles that drive the limbs and movement.

They have very long muscle fibers

and very strong muscle fibers that contract at very high rate.

>>The cheetah's spine works like an extension of its hind legs.

As the leg moves forward, the spine bends and recoils

driving those legs backwards.

This then creates a lot of force at a very high velocity

accelerating the animal forward.

In order to fuel the high-speed chase,

cheetahs have adapted an efficient way to breathe.

In order to then move that fast, you require lots of

oxygen. So they have then physiological adaptations

in addition to the muscular and skeletal adaptations,

is they have very large nasal passages

to allow lots of air to go to their lungs.

They have relatively large lungs and they have very large heart

that contracts at very high rate.

Cheetahs are built for speed,

but a predator cannot survive on speed alone.

They've adapted different strategies

that allow them to hunt solo or in groups.

Female cheetahs with no cubs or cubs too young to hunt,

are perfectly happy to fly solo.

When the cubs are old enough to hunt,

they join forces with mom to hunt in a group,

a rare but valuable strategy in the big cat world.

Adult male cheetahs also hunt in groups.

But whether solo or in a group,

their slight stature limits the size of their prey.

But that doesn't make the hunt any easier.

They focus on the smaller prey,

but the very fast prey, which are the gazelles.

Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle.

The cheetah has world-class speed and hunting prowess,

but it's not perfect.

It has one major disadvantage.

Stamina.

Despite its large nasal passage,

if it doesn't nail its prey in the first 1,000 feet,

it will completely run out of steam and go home hungry.

A typical chase is about 200 meters

and the chase is typically over in 10 seconds.

So noteworthy, they don't run very far

because of the speed that they generate

is very hard on the animal's respiratory physiology.

To catch supper,

the cheetah must get as close to its prey as possible,

ideally within 164 feet or less.

To get that close without being spotted,

it stalks from behind bushes, trees and tall grass.

Once it's close enough, the chase is on.

(♪♪♪)

They can't outrun the cheetah, so they zigzag.

And the cheetah, in order to catch the gazelle,

has to also zigzag very rapidly.

They have adaptations in their legs,

so the foot pads on their feet are rigid.

Their claws are permanently extended for gripping.

So they can turn very rapidly.

It knocks its prey to the ground,

grips it by the throat and strangles it to death.

(♪♪♪)

As the gazelle, loses its breath,

the cheetah's breathing returns to normal

as those bug nostrils bring in air.

But even in victory,

a cheetah much like a hyena, has to be on guard.

A lion may have caught wind of the hunt

and be waiting to steal the prize.

To prevent that, the cheetah eats extremely fast.

They gobble it up and try to get as much eaten as they can,

cos they know that they're going to lose their prey

most likely.

And they have to feed their young at the same time.

So they're quite vulnerable

and to the predation

and competition from stealing from the bigger predators.

All predators face challenges, but you gotta eat.

The cheetah has astonishing speed.

It's what they're known for.

Even so, nearly 70% of its prey would get away.

But that's life in the fast lane.

They're called African painted dogs,

African wild dogs

or African hunting dogs.

Whatever you call them,

these dogs are not man's best friend.

(Dogs squealing)

They're vicious pack-hunting killers,

honed for taking down large prey.

(♪♪♪)

This is not your average Fido,

Rex

or Rover.

They are African painted dogs.

These distant cousins of domestic dogs

know that they're strength in numbers.

They live in packs of up to 30.

(♪♪♪)

Despite the large pack size,

African wild dogs work as an efficient, organized team

to catch their communal meal.

The more that are in a group,

the more successful they're gonna be huntin'.

They're kind of a mid-sized predator,

so most of what they're trying to hunt is gonna be

substantially larger than them.

So not only do they get tired of tryin' to chase them down,

but then if you're tryin' to hunt a zebra

that weighs something, like,

close to 8 to 10 times your size,

havin' all those additional bodies to help,

it makes it a lot more likely to be successful.

This makes them some of the most effective hunters

in the animal kingdom.

African wild dogs successfully bring down a kill

90% of the time.

Compare that to a lion

with a success rate that's less than 40%.

They're also very efficient,

working fast to keep bigger predators

from stealing their meal.

Once they spot somethin' they wanna hunt,

they'll start to actually kinda surround a little bit.

They'll kinda run relays a little bit.

So as the one starts to chase, as they tire up,

then you have other ones that can take their place.

So they, kind of, will leapfrog through the process

and then whoever can actually get a hold of the animal first,

will try to stop that animal.

A lot of times, they'll actually go for,

like, the abdomen.

A dominant breeding male and female leads each pack

comprised of their offspring and relatives,

with males greatly outnumbering females.

The group bond is so tight that they're one of the few species

that mourns the loss of a pack member.

And unlike other predators such as wolves,

if the alpha pair were to die,

the pack will completely disband and start over.

Their pack mentality extends beyond their hunting abilities.

In fact, for a pack of wild dogs,

they're surprisingly non-confrontational.

Extensive studies

of these maligned and misunderstood animals

have revealed unbelievable things.

Outside the odd scrap between

dominant and subordinate females,

they run a very peaceful ship.

They even maintain their own social support system.

Bonding is regularly reinforced with friendly greeting rituals.

They jump, squeal, wag their tails

and lick each other's faces every morning.

Painted dogs will actually take on full-time roles

suited to their skills.

Long-term observation has documented males

giving up hunting altogether

to take on the full-time role of nanny,

minding the pubs while the pack hunts.

Others have been observed taking on

the sole responsibility of head nurse

bringing food to sick pack mates

and nursing them back to health.

It's a near-utopian team concept.

Not the behaviour you'd expect from a pack of wild dogs.

All of the pack members will actually contribute

to the caring for any weaker members.

For the pups, for example,

every single member contributes to feeding them.

They contribute to protecting them at play time, etc.

They're all very focused on those pubs

and making sure that they have what they need.

No 2 wild dogs have the same painted patterns.

Scientists suspect

the colouration might help them during the hunt,

but no one really knows.

What scientists do know

is that these dogs are incredibly skilled

at communicating

with a vocal diversity that's comparable to dolphins.

Not only do they bark and growl like a domestic dog,

but they also make high-pitched chirps and long loud howls

to keep track of each other across great distances.

As with a lot of different species,

they do have different calls

that they use for different situations.

We can tell what the vocalization means.

If we separate the group for any reason,

like sometimes we'll bring the male in to feed,

separated from the female,

so that he gets a chance to actually eat

without being pestered.

And the 2 females outside, they'll do the long call,

and, like, you know it's specifically his call

that they're trying to track him down.

Working together is the key to the painted dog survival.

As members of a pack they're strong, effective

and incredibly intelligent

making them some of the most proficient hunters

in the animal kingdom.

(♪♪♪)

Apex predators seem to have won the evolutionary lottery.

These species hunt and kill with superior strength

and attack with impressive strategy and mechanics.

They are at the top of their game

and at the top of their food chain.

(♪♪♪)