Original subtitles

Two kittens! Two of them, brilliant.

Lynx are some of the most beautiful cats in the world.

In the wild, they're so shy and elusive,

it's rare to see them at all.

But in Russia, hundreds of these big cats are in captivity.

I want to get these animals out and start...

..this journey to a better life.

I'm Gordon Buchanan. I've come to the Russian wilderness to join

a pioneering scientist in a ground-breaking project.

We've rescued two pairs of lynx.

One couple was born in the wild,

but were held captive for years in a fur farm.

The other - a pair of young adults from the pet trade -

were raised in an apartment.

They've never experienced nature.

Oh, up the tree!

Look at her go...that's astounding!

Victor and I are attempting something new.

We want to rehabilitate and release these incredible animals.

That's a really good one.

He's beginning to look a lot like a top predator.

But after a life indoors,

can these lynx ever learn to be truly wild again?

My biggest fear is maybe they're going to have to spend

the rest of their lives in an enclosure.

And that's not what this project is about.

We're now in the crucial final phase of the project.

We have two lynx that were kept as pets -

Bryansk, the male...

..and Dasha, the female.

They are both learning to cope with life outdoors.

A moggy in someone's living room is more engaged than this.

Bryansk behaves like a housecat.

He's in a complete little world of his own.

He's got a long way to go if he's ever to be released into the wild.

You're such a weird character.

New parents Koshka...

..and Miass spent years in a fur farmer's cage.

A few months ago, they surprised us with kittens.

But Koshka's never raised a family before.

We're keeping a close eye on her to make sure she's got the right

instincts to keep the kittens alive and out of harm's way.

It's two months since I was last here in Russia.

Most of the lynx are now in the forest enclosure.

It's a safe training ground for us to rekindle their wild instincts.

This is lynx paradise.

I knew this wasn't going to be straightforward.

Since the kittens were born, they've been incredibly difficult to see.

Koshka and her two kittens are here...somewhere.

OK, the search goes on.

Seeing a lynx in the wild is all but impossible.

They tend to stick to thick cover, and here in the forest enclosure...

..it's no different.

WHISPERING: She's here. She's right in front of me.

It's Koshka just coming through the bushes...

KOSHKA CALLS

And she's there...

..calling, at the moment.

KOSHKA'S CALLS CONTINUE

So I'm wondering if she's calling the kittens up on to that spot.

Where are you...?

Oh, she's with one of the kittens...!

There you go...there you go.

Ha!

Both kittens...

She's got both kittens with her.

I'm amazed by how much these kittens have grown.

They are huge!

GORDON CHUCKLES I don't know..!

They must be about five times larger than they were when I last saw them.

They are looking great.

For Koshka, who was once held on a fur farm,

to raise her own kittens at all is incredibly special.

Every time she's had kittens in the past...

..they've been taken away from her before this stage of their lives.

So, if anything...

..we've given her an opportunity to be...

..be a mum.

A mother's work is never done when you are a parent to two hungry lynx.

She's still giving them milk, but it must be, literally...

..the dregs. I reckon within the next week, two weeks,

the kittens are going to be completely weaned off of milk,

and they will be getting all of their sustenance from meat.

And this is going to be food that has NOT been caught by them.

It will be Koshka that's doing all of the hunting.

Our other two lynx - the pets, Bryansk and Dasha - are in another

part of the forest enclosure, separated by a fence.

The male, Bryansk, is going to need a lot of our attention

if he's to make the transformation from pet lynx to wild lynx.

Hello, you! I was looking for you.

Come on, then.

I do feel a little bit ridiculous with

a long stick and a little feather.

You might wonder why we would want to engage this cat in play.

It's all about honing those instincts and skills

that they need in the wild.

That's what play is for wild cats.

Oh! There you go. Come on.

You should be all over this.

Come on...

Even a moggy in someone's living room is more engaged than this.

Anyone that's ever seen...

..spent time with a domestic cat will know it's very, very easy

to engage them in play, particularly with a youngster.

For him, he's...not remotely interested.

He's in a complete little world of his own.

Come on!

It's worrying that Bryansk has no hunting instinct.

We can't release him in the wild

until he demonstrates he's able to catch his own food.

To help all the cats learn to hunt,

Victor has stocked the enclosure with native prey...

..animals they'll hunt in the wild.

BIRD CALLS

He's found one of the partridge,

and that grabbed his attention.

In the wild, a lynx mother would teach her kittens to hunt

by bringing live prey for them to practise on.

But Bryansk was a pet,

and wasn't brought up by his mum.

But for this cat, he hasn't had any of that.

You really don't know what you're doing...

There's no association between a living thing and food.

And he's going to be hungry.

These cats, to survive, are going to have to catch other live animals.

And if they can do that, that's when Victor feels comfortable

that they are at the final hurdle, and they can be released.

He's a bit of a dozy moggy.

Hiding away in the same section of the forest enclosure is the other

former pet, the young female, Dasha.

WHISPERING: Where are you?

There she is.

LYNX GROWLS

She's seen me.

They are such different characters, Bryansk and Dasha.

I don't think you could get two cats that are more different.

He is gregarious

and she's just

a shadow in the forest.

Dasha is showing great potential for release later this autumn.

She's stalking her own prey and is wary of people.

These are behaviours she'll need to evade hunters and stay alive.

If only Bryansk could take a leaf out of her book.

GROWLING

Something attracted his attention.

He's being drawn to the fence that separates his area from Koshka's.

Oh, yeah, yeah, Koshka's there. KOSHKA SNARLS

And she's not at all happy to see him.

Koshka is defending her territory

and her kittens.

If you look at Koshka's behaviour,

it's full-on, 100% aggression.

And you look at him...

He's trying to make friends with her.

He's actually trying to head-rub with her through the fence.

So that's an absolute absence of any

knowledge of lynx-cat etiquette.

That if somebody is growling at you,

spitting at you, hissing at you,

baring their teeth, that means, "Go away."

Bryansk will need to learn how to defend his territory.

In the wild, his life may depend on it.

Absolutely clueless.

Look, he's not...he's not remotely concerned.

Victor and I always knew a pet like Bryansk

was going to be a challenge.

But we may have underestimated just how difficult

this was going to be.

Still running down there.

Sometimes he does look like a wild lynx.

What did you say about your cat?

Your...?

Bryansk is still the biggest challenge

for Victor's project.

This young lynx will have to improve drastically if he is ever

to be released.

But we need to assess all our lynx and work out which have the best

chance of making it out into the wild before winter.

Unlike Bryansk, Koshka and the kittens are harder

to keep tabs on.

They tend to stay hidden away in the long grass.

To help observe the kittens and check they're developing quickly

enough, I'm setting up remote cameras.

I think we're at a stage where we need to get a clearer

picture of where the kittens are at developmentally,

and we've not just got Koshka and Miass to worry about when they come

to be released, they've got two kittens, and we have to be sure

that all of the cats are ready to go.

And the only way we can do that is by observing them and seeing,

you know, charting their progress.

These cameras can be operated well away from Koshka's family.

They won't even know I'm watching them.

That's cool.

There you go. Ha!

This looks like a favourite suntrap for Koshka to warm herself...

..and the kittens.

And I think, for me, I realise this is a once-in-a-lifetime

opportunity to observe these amazing cats in such an intimate way.

They are in a very, very playful mood today.

I think it's because it's really cool.

The temperature has plummeted over the last couple of days.

Though lynx kittens spend the first year with their mothers,

they have to learn to hunt for themselves

at just four months old.

I don't want to take my eyes off them because they are moving

around like little clockwork kittens.

This is something that would be impossible to see in the wild.

Really, really active, playing, chasing each other.

Ambushing, pouncing and biting are all key to their development.

Play fighting is practice for when the kittens have to catch

and kill their own food.

Being able to watch them this closely has allowed us to tell

one kitten from the other.

That's really beautiful.

Victor and his family have named

them Ivan and Aliona,

after a brother and sister

in a Russian fairy tale.

In the story, they escape

their wicked grandmother to live

a happy life in the forest.

I like those names.

They suit them.

The kittens' appearance is similar, but their behaviour

is very different.

It's Aliona who seems to be most adventurous.

That's really beautiful.

Ivan is happier to stand aside

and just watch.

The next big developmental milestone that I expect to see will be

climbing. You know, skulking

through the grass and running and playing and play fighting,

all of that is really instinctive,

and there's no real risk to it.

You start... When a kitten starts climbing, that's when it can

get really dangerous.

We're six months into the project and the lynx have come a long way

on their journey back to the wild.

Each one has its own challenges, especially Bryansk.

This two-and-a-half-year-old needs more of a helping hand

to find his inner wild lynx.

So this is my tool box

and toy box. Toy box.

Lynx are ambush predators.

They can leap nearly four metres straight up to catch birds

out of the air.

But can Bryansk?

OK. I have slung this rope over

a tight line that I've put up in the, in the trees,

so it loops over. There's a little pulley.

So what we've got is a lure.

And what I'm going to do is... It's going to be a sensory overload.

On the end of this piece of string there's going to be a piece of meat

that he can see but he can also smell.

There's this little feathery fascinator that Bryansk

will be able to see. There's a camera to record it.

And if he comes for it, what I'm going to do, instead of giving it

to him, I'm just going to give it a quick tug and Bryansk

should, without problem, be able to jump from the ground up and grab

the meat off of here.

A couple of months ago, Bryansk only recognised food that was presented

to him in a bowl.

So what I want to do is just get him to associate this little morsel

of food with this system,

and then we might have his attention.

So it's just a mouthful, just a little bit.

He knows that there's meat there.

BRYANSK HISSES AND SNORTS

This way. This way.

This way.

Up you go.

Right, got your back.

He's tired. Yeah.

This is good for him, it's making him think and it's making him act.

Oh! Got that.

He's got one claw in.

He's got one claw... Oh, gosh. Not got the meat.

See, this is perfect. That swatting and jumping.

If he was walking through the forest and he startled a pheasant,

a partridge, he's going to have to jump,

he's going to have to reach out with those claws out and swat it

from the air. So, as artificial as this may seem,

it is just really making

that instinctive behaviour kick in.

It's great.

BRYANSK PANTS

Bryansk has definitely shown us he has the ability.

He's panting.

It's just the motivation that's still lacking.

THEY CHUCKLE How do you think you've done?

I think your leaping was actually pretty, pretty good.

I think what you need to do is just sort of wind it up a bit,

into sort of a bit more attack,

less sort of procrastination.

On the other side of the forest site are Koshka and the kittens.

They're a full two years younger than Bryansk.

Victor and his family have joined me to see how the kittens react

to a lure.

Victor's son, Svetislav, is at the other end of the fishing

line, jiggling the lure.

It's like fishing. Fishing for kittens.

We've noticed the kittens are almost completely weaned off Koshka's milk.

They're getting their sustenance from the meat she brings them.

But do these little ones have the killer instinct?

OK.

True to form, it's Aliona, the female, who's first to show

an interest.

It's a new game.

And again. THEY CHUCKLE

Tiptoeing.

You can see the clear difference between these two kittens,

between the male and female. Aliona's the one that's doing all

the playing, and Ivan is the overseer, the onlooker.

She's definitely more adventurous. If something... If there's something

new, she is the first to it

and he seems to hang back.

So it's not just some physical differences

between these two kittens,

their personalities are completely different as well.

THEY LAUGH

Here comes the other one.

Aliona has clearly got the determination needed

to learn to hunt.

One more. Keep going.

How many times?

That is incredible.

There's no stopping her.

The kittens are developing quickly, but they were born late in the year.

They may not be big and strong enough to be released as a family

this side of winter.

It's the final push for Victor and our lynx.

The kittens' father, Miass, is about to be moved

to the forest enclosure.

Five out of the six lynx involved in this rehabilitation project

are at the forest sites. So we have Koshka, her two kittens,

we have the yearlings.

The only cat that remains to be transported is Miass,

and then we will have the full set in the place that we want to...

..want them to be.

Miass is still in the recovery enclosure where all the cats spent

time rebuilding their health and strength.

When they were last together,

Miass and Koshka had a strong bond.

Whether that stays the same in the forest site remains

to be seen.

Put here. Put here. OK.

I want to take it. We good?

We've learned from relocating the other cats

that they're less stressed if we move them at night.

Down we go.

He'll probably be surveying what's in front of him.

Look for maybe one of the darkest spots and head for that.

Oh, there you go!

It's going to be quite confusing for him.

He's in a new place, but he is going to feel more comfortable

because it's night-time. Under the cover of darkness,

he'll feel much more relaxed, less exposed.

So it's great, the sort of...

..the next step in his development.

Hopefully one step closer to being back in the wild.

Miass is getting used to his new surroundings.

The forest enclosure is big enough for all the cats

to find their own space,

but inevitably their paths will cross.

LOW GROWLING

Koshka and Miass not too happy to see each other.

That's interesting.

You know, there's obviously a level of tolerance between them,

but it's not exactly happy families.

This makes sense.

Many biologists believe that lynx are so solitary in the wild

that males and females only come together to mate.

I think maybe that natural instinct to want to be alone bubbles

up to the surface.

It seems to have more come from Koshka than Miass.

She was the one that growled.

He was the one that ran away.

We've all been there.

It's time to set another challenge for Bryansk.

He's going to come.

Today, I've come armed with a radio-controlled car.

I don't want you around, not at the moment.

We've already seen he can leap for his dinner.

I want to find out if he's willing to run for it.

I'm trying to set up a lure for Bryansk to chase,

but he is hopefully losing interest in me

and I can crack on.

The reason he's quite so interested in me at the moment is that I have

a piece of synthetic fur that looks like real fur.

I have some meat in a bag.

I have a remote-controlled car.

And I'm going to put all three together and create

a high-speed lure.

I don't like him being this... this close.

Bryansk is still essentially tame -

something we need to change soon.

But for now, I want to check if he's got the agility of a hunter.

He'll need to if he's ever to be released in the wild.

And for me, this is what it's all about, is, um...

..is actually seeing the hunting

skills of a lynx up close.

Kind of recreating a hunting scenario with some pork

and a remote-controlled car.

But the principle is exactly the same.

There's chase and there's reward.

And this is what he has to chase.

And this is the reward.

This may not be textbook rehabilitation,

but he's now engaged.

Nothing... Nothing whatsoever ridiculous about this.

This is...

..all in a day's...all in a day's work when it comes to rehabilitation

of lynx.

Come on. Faster than that.

Come on.

That's so lazy!

That is ridiculous!

What we want to see is an explosive burst of power.

Not a trot.

Not a little canter.

Rapid changes in direction mimic what a hare or rabbit would do,

trying to escape.

OK.

So he's got his dewclaw into the car,

so there's no way that I can actually drive away from him.

Even then, if it's not dead,

there's still a chance it can...it can get away.

GORDON LAUGHS

OK, he's enjoying his reward,

but I don't think he...

..I don't think he worked for that at all.

I think that was way too... way too easy for him.

Up the tree. Up the tree. My God, look at that!

The kittens are becoming increasingly independent.

Of the two siblings, it's Aliona who always takes the lead.

Her brother is more cautious.

She's got as high as she can possibly go.

What's she doing?

She can't get comfortable up there.

I think she's going to have to come back down.

Play like this has a serious purpose.

In the wild,

Aliona and Ivan will need to climb trees to catch squirrels

and seek safety.

Where are you going?

At this age, practice makes perfect.

My God, look at that!

Look at her go!

Gosh! Keep going. Keep going.

Oh, my God, that must be about ten metres up.

That's astounding.

It's funny to think, not long ago, she was incapable of even sitting

up straight, and look at her now.

I'm staggered by the developmental changes in Aliona.

I'm sure Ivan will catch up.

He's just going to take longer.

Their mum, Koshka, has no time to play.

We know she spends much of her day hunting...

..but so far we haven't seen how she does it.

We're keen to assess her skills.

CHIRPING

To hunt, a lynx like Koshka needs to stalk silently...

..and unleash a huge burst of energy.

Most hunts end in failure.

So a lynx needs to be wily, strong and persistent.

Wowsers!

Koshka's jump covers eight metres of ground.

It's proof for us that, physically, she's fully recovered.

Plus, she's displaying all the right skills when it comes to hunting.

The young male, Bryansk, was born and bred to be a pet.

Sparking his instincts to hunt is crucial.

We need to see big improvements soon, or he'll stay in captivity

for the rest of his life.

My plan is to try and engage Bryansk.

And as I've seen, it's the actual movement, it's the chase

that really he's most interested in. And with this pulley system,

we can move a lure ridiculously fast,

a lot faster than he can... he can run.

Right, Bryansk.

Let's see what you're capable of.

Come on, pal.

Use those eyes of yours.

OK.

OK, all of this is completely artificial.

There's a pulley system, a battery, a piece of synthetic fur.

So it's a very unnatural set-up.

But what I hope to see is 100% natural,

a lynx at his very, very best.

In the wilds of Russia, lynx predate on animals as large as deer.

And when a roe deer can move at over 70km an hour,

Bryansk is going to need speed and agility.

That was a really good one.

He's outrunning my pulley.

I don't think he was even going full pelt.

This was him, I'd say, sort of 60% of his full potential.

So I'm going to re-rig things, make some minor repairs,

try it again.

This is a big step.

The former pet is finally showing real promise.

He's a million miles away from the lazy housecat

that I first met.

He's beginning to look a lot like a top predator.

SQUAWKING

Was that another partridge?

He can hear a partridge off in the forest here.

So he's lost interest in this... PARTRIDGE SQUAWKS

..preferring to look for the real thing.

This is an opportunity for Bryansk to put his skills to use.

PARTRIDGE CHIRPS

Oh!

It's an enormous breakthrough for Bryansk...

He's got it in his mouth.

..and for Victor's project.

You think he's killed it?

Having had a successful hunt,

Bryansk now seems like a different, much wilder animal.

BRYANSK HISSES AND GROWLS Ssh, ssh, ssh, ssh, ssh.

OK.

Go back to your food.

My heart rate's going a bit faster now.

You get a real show of a wilder side.

That was very interesting.

And when he got it in his mouth and he tasted the blood,

suddenly there was a complete change

in his behaviour and he was defending...

..defending his prey from me.

Koshka is also on the prowl.

Oh, yeah.

There's a partridge.

She knows it's there,

but it's on the other side of the bushes from her.

If she moves, that's what's going to give away her presence.

Oh, there she goes! There she goes!

Has she got it?

Yeah, she got it.

That was very quick.

Because Koshka once lived in the wild,

this proves she's retained her hunting skills.

I reckon she's taken it off to the kittens.

These are skills the kittens have yet to develop.

Their opportunistic father, Miass, is only interested in a free meal.

I do love him, he's a beautiful looking lynx, but...

..he's pretty useless when it comes to...feeding himself.

For weeks, Koshka's been taking dead birds to Aliona and Ivan,

but there's a new development today.

Aliona has already reached a crucial milestone in kitten growth.

She's developed a kill bite -

something all feline predators need

in the wild.

It doesn't seem as if Ivan is quite there yet.

The changes in the kittens have been impressive to watch.

Our hands-off approach has allowed them to develop naturally,

away from humans.

Bryansk is also coming on in leaps and bounds, but he still

has one big problem.

He's too comfortable with people.

It's time for some tough love.

Is that something that you want to do, to make him scared

of people, more fearful?

So what do you plan to do to make him more scared of people?

So, is it a hand...? It's not a rifle, it's a handgun?

Oh, OK. Yeah.

They're very light.

You shot your father?

I had tried... Do you want to shoot me?

OK, you can shoot me.

This is a case of "Don't try this at home".

And you get to shoot...

The Cold War is over!

Shoot? Go.

Ah, ah, ya! Ow!

You feel it? Yeah! Yes! THEY LAUGH

Oh! That would work.

You're not my friend any more. THEY LAUGH

There?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He doesn't know what's coming.

I feel really sorry for Bryansk, cos all through his life,

people have wanted to get close to him,

and that's the only message that he's got from human beings.

And now we are giving the opposite signal.

We want him to run away from us.

That's the way it's going to have to be, sadly.

So, every time we see him, we have to...

From here, the pellets will give Bryansk a shock but won't harm him.

Shoot...shoot him?

Do you think he's going to be confused?

Yeah, yeah.

No, I know. Yeah.

No, I get it.

There's a thick area over here.

Quite a lot of trees and low shrub.

So the plan is to pressure him.

If he is on the perimeter, pressure him,

if he's in the open, but not to shoot at him

when he's in his refuge.

So he needs to know that the safest place

to be is the thick cover.

So it's exactly the same as, you know, for a lynx in the wild.

It needs to know, associate

thick, dense vegetation with being a safe place.

It's been a tough but necessary day.

Bryansk will now begin to associate humans with danger.

And it's timely.

Victor has had some good news.

He's been given permission to release Bryansk and Dasha

in a protected national park in Siberia.

We've been seeing positive changes in Bryansk.

He's behaving more like a wild lynx, and he's even

defending his territory.

Bryansk is pacing back and forward, and back and forward.

Two kittens this side

and then, Bryansk on the other side of the fence.

And if their mum and dad know that they're down there, they're not

going to be happy. They're really not going to be happy about

Bryansk being that close to them.

Up till now, Koshka's not had a problem seeing off Bryansk.

But something's changed.

GROWLING AND SNARLING

The young male is standing his ground.

This encounter makes me realise just how far this project has come.

Bryansk has turned a corner and is ready for release.

His counterpart, the elusive Dasha, has been quietly ready

for some time.

Parents Koshka and Miass are both ready, too.

But they're hampered by their kittens.

Aliona and Ivan are still vulnerable.

And Victor's had to make a tough decision.

It's the right thing.

Do you think it's too much pressure to release them this year?

Yeah.

Victor's entire rehabilitation project was a huge gamble...

Nice to meet you.

..and it's paying off.

Miass and Koshka were plucked from tiny

cages in a dimly lit garage and are now fully recovered.

They even surprised us by producing two healthy kittens.

All four members of this lynx family are well on their way

to a better life in the wild.

The journey that Bryansk and Dasha have been on is also remarkable.

As pets, they've never known the wild.

But they've now learned the skills needed to survive

a release in Siberia.

With Bryansk and Dasha safely inside transportation crates,

we're flying 4,500 km east.

Victor has secured a release site in a protected park,

far from humans,

deep in the Siberian wilderness.

A key factor in the success of predator rehabilitation projects

is an absence of hunters and an abundance of prey.

The Khakassia Reserve in Siberia ticks both of these boxes.

It's possibly the best place on the planet to release our lynx.

It's amazing.

So beautiful, this area

It's a paradise.

Yeah.

So, on the other side of the river, is that the protected area?

I think Dasha and Bryansk are going to be happy.

OK, let's go.

You need a special permit to enter this park,

and there are rangers patrolling it at all times,

so there'll be no hunters and our lynx will be safe.

This feels maybe as remote as you can get in...across Asia.

As you travel to Siberia,

you get the sense that you're kind of in the middle of nowhere.

But then to travel deeper into such a forested area and not see

any signs of human beings,

it's... Yeah, the back of beyond.

OK.

But they're in an amazing place.

If I was a lynx, this is where I'd like to be.

We'll get Bryansk now.

Have to remember not to put my fingers in the holes.

Finally, allowing both these cats to go free,

I can't believe it's finally happening, that we are giving

Bryansk and Dasha

a shot at freedom.

First to be released is the timid female, Dasha.

Like Bryansk, she's never known freedom.

That is about to change.

She didn't hang around.

Yeah, it's amazing.

Now Bryansk.

Let's do it.

A moment that we hardly believed

would ever arrive.

Come on, you beauty.

Bryansk...

Where are you going? Hey, boy?

OK, you don't want to see us any more.

Look at that.

Off you go. He is...

Yeah, he's afraid.

No need to be afraid.

Don't look back at us.

It's really emotional to see him go,

because he doesn't know what this represents.

He doesn't know where he is...

..but we know. We know he's in the place that he should be.

We don't always get an opportunity to do something...something

good for nature, and we've done something today that I think

has made this wild part of Russia a little bit richer.

We can feel happy about that.

And the next step for the cats that I've got to know

will be in the spring when Koshka, Miass and the kittens

will also be released.

I'd like to be around for that.

Well done. Yes.

Good work. Thank you.

No, thank you.