Original subtitles

This is the Kalahari.

And I have come here to get to know

one of the most extraordinary animals on the planet,

one of the most proficient predators,

one of the most beautiful cats in the world -

the cheetah.

The world's fastest land animal

goes from 0 to 60 in three seconds.

Despite their supreme speed,

these predators are surprisingly vulnerable.

You know, I just realise how difficult,

how challenging life is for a mother cheetah.

Everything's stacked against them.

Across Africa, cheetah numbers are collapsing

so I'm following two families -

Savannah and her four cubs,

and Chilli, with her newborn kittens -

to see what threatens their survival.

This is my first opportunity to truly get to know

cheetah in the wild,

and the most exciting part of that

is I'm going to be doing it on foot.

On foot, I'll experience the same dangers they do

and get caught up in unfolding wild cheetah drama.

This is one of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen.

Immersed in cheetah family life...

I'm feeling somewhat surrounded here.

..I hope to learn how we can protect these cats for the future.

At the start of the 20th century,

there was estimated to be 100,000 cheetah in the wild.

Today, the numbers could be as low as 7,000.

7,000 wild cheetahs across this vast continent.

Cheetahs have vanished from over 90% of their historic range.

So I've come to South Africa

to understand why they're disappearing.

And it's here, at Tswalu Reserve in the Kalahari,

where I can get close enough to wild cheetahs

to experience life from their perspective.

Just stunningly beautiful.

Tswalu stretches across 1,000 square kilometres

of the Kalahari wilderness.

It's not known exactly how many cheetahs live in Tswalu.

Africa's most endangered big cat can be hard to spot.

But there is one cheetah mum known to the rangers here

who could be the perfect cat to get close to.

At the moment, she's in a place inaccessible to vehicles

but there's another effective means to find her.

It's an amazing way to see the Kalahari, on horseback.

It's beautiful.

I've been on horses many times,

but never in Africa, in fact.

Richard Satekge is a cheetah expert

and conservationist at the reserve.

We'll just keep us... keep our eyes open... Yeah.

..for tracks.

Have you seen cheetah up actually in the dunes here before?

Yeah, this is... Oh, really? Wow.

We always see the tracks of them, As they come here,

they will use the dune as a... Lookout, yeah.

..lookout point.

Having worked here for 20 years,

Richard has forged a trusting relationship

with three generations of a cheetah family,

making them potentially approachable on foot.

My whole mission really is to understand the cheetahs' world

and to not do that from the confines of a four-wheel drive.

This is one of the very few places in Africa

when you can actually get down on the ground, on foot,

and follow truly wild cheetah.

So you reckon that these cheetah are still in the area?

Yeah. They're still in the area.

See, these tracks are very fresh. Yeah.

But in this bushy landscape,

these signs can be hard to follow,

even for an expert tracker like Richard.

Oh, yeah. Just look, look, look, look, look, look.

Look! There they are.

Fantastic. Look at that.

My first Kalahari cheetah.

HORSE WHINNIES

OK, boy, steady.

Do you know there's a big cat in there?

This is Savannah.

She's eight years old

and mum to four six-month-old cubs

hidden somewhere in the thicket.

You beauty.

Beautiful, fully grown mother cheetah.

I don't want to get too close.

I think you might be a little bit restless, this horse.

I wonder if you can smell the cat.

The bush is too dense for the horses.

To spot her cubs...

Good boy.

..I need to go in on foot.

Good lad. Good lad.

OK. I'm going to go and check out these cheetah, OK?

I want to understand this family's struggle for survival.

The best way to do that is to walk alongside them.

The success of Gordon's mission

depends mostly on the first encounter.

Gordon has to be very careful.

There's a comfort zone that Gordon mustn't go through.

If he breaks the comfort zone,

she's not going to like it.

Savannah gave birth to five cubs,

but one recently went missing,

possibly killed by a leopard.

So she's likely to be especially protective.

If I'm to gain her trust, I'll need to tread carefully.

If Gordon corners Savannah,

we're talking like if there was no big space

and then Savannah, she doesn't have anywhere to run to

and she's got cubs,

Savannah, she's going to go straight and attack Gordon.

OK, I'm good to go.

Home to the world's most dangerous animals,

walking in South Africa's reserves is rarely allowed.

ANIMAL CALLS

But I've been granted special permission.

My senses are on high alert.

BIRD CAWS

And there's something about being out here.

Every little noise, every little bird that flutters,

every twig that snaps,

it feels, um, amplified.

I think it's just that your senses are heightened

when there's that sort of possibility of danger.

ANIMAL ROARS

There's a hyena over here.

Less happy about that.

But if those calls get any closer,

I'm going to pull out of here.

HYENAS CALL

It's making me a little bit uncomfortable.

And walking through the bush

and trying to get close to a cheetah is one thing

but I'm not that keen about bumping into some hyena.

With a reputation as scavengers,

hyenas are also formidable predators with a bone-crushing bite.

They can take down prey much larger than me.

Dunno how far away they are, maybe...

It sounds like they're maybe a couple of hundred metres.

HYENAS CALL

Right, I'm going to keep... Oh, here we go.

You beauty.

It's a big jumble of spots,

occasional sort of flicks of tails,

and then, at the moment, I can see

four very beautiful little faces

staring right back at me.

This is Savannah's third litter.

The boldest of her four cubs is Suma.

True to form, she emerges to check me out.

Beautiful.

OK, don't be afraid, don't be afraid.

At six months old, Suma looks strong and healthy,

but she's still small and dependent on mum for another year.

I'd really like to know where their mum is.

Knowing that Savannah would stop at nothing to defend her cubs,

I need to be careful.

A little bit worried that she might be behind me.

The last thing I want to do is get between her and her cubs.

OK.

HE INHALES SHARPLY

She's not going to be far away from them.

At the moment, it's quite hot,

so I don't think she's going to be off...off hunting.

Oh, there you go!

There she is.

And the best thing of all is

she is completely relaxed.

So you must be...

You must be Savannah.

Ah, this makes me very happy.

I think to be on foot

and be so close to an animal like this

when it knows that you're here and it's accepting of your presence,

that is really...

..that's very special.

And I'm hoping that over the days and weeks and months,

I'm going to be able to get to know this cat and her cubs.

Now she's comfortable with me, I want to follow her

to understand the dangers of raising a family here.

BIRDSONG

Overnight, Savannah and her cubs have moved from where I left them.

With a territory of 300 square kilometres,

I'm hoping she hasn't travelled too far.

But I don't need to see her to follow her.

It's really quite easy to follow the cheetahs

because they're leaving really nice tracks in the sand.

So we've got them here.

I want to find out how Savannah provides for her family.

Cheetah mothers have it tough.

Over the course of a year and a half,

they need to rear their cubs to independence single-handedly.

So Savannah's on her own.

There's just a single set of adult cheetah tracks here.

The cubs must be back there.

And I reckon she's hunting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, look at this.

See this one deep, deep, deep mark?

She's suddenly put on a burst of...

..a burst of speed and headed off in this direction.

So this is where she's started to run

and she's picking up the pace.

There's like two metres between these tracks.

All of them are deep, very well defined.

She's at full tilt here.

That's like three metres between that footprint and this one.

The cheetahs' incredibly flexible spine

allows their front legs to stretch far forward,

propelling them up to seven metres in a single stride.

So she could well have reached like 40mph

in the last three strides.

By this point, it's hard to find the tracks

cos they're so well spaced out.

It's like nearly four metres between that print and this one.

So she's probably tipping the...

..tipping the accelerator about 70mph,

possibly in under, or just round about, three seconds.

And she's going full pelt.

Running, running, running.

A straight line at the moment.

So here,

whatever she's been after

knows that she's there.

Lots of scuffles here,

but she hasn't brought it down yet.

There'd be a little sort of... Oh, that scuff mark,

that's where she's been sort of jinking

and doing a bit of twisting.

She's gone straight here.

Where, where, where, where, where, where?

Cos she's still here, she's still in hot pursuit

and she's kind of leapt across this road in a single bound.

More tracks here.

More tracks here.

Oh, she... There she is. There she is!

Look, look!

She's got something.

Still alive.

You can see it's still breathing.

But she's done a great job.

Cheetahs are undeniably fast but they're lightly built,

which means almost every other predator -

hyenas, lions and leopards -

can muscle in and steal their kills.

OK, she's off with it.

Right, where are you taking it, girl?

Trying to get a little bit more cover, a bit more privacy.

Any predator attracted to the carcass

could kill her cubs, and she's already lost one.

SAVANNAH YIPS

OK, she's yipping, trying to call the cubs

and she's... SAVANNAH YIPS

I think with this wind they're not hearing her.

I don't know where they...

I don't know where they are and she doesn't know where they are.

Cheetahs communicate with this high-pitched call.

They sound more like a bird than a big cat.

It's a vocal disguise that helps keep cubs safe,

but still only 10% survive to adulthood.

SHE YIPS

She's looking pretty nervous.

I suppose every minute that she spends away from the cubs

she's going to get more and more nervous,

more and more concerned about them.

It's not just leopards that are known to inhabit this area.

Wild dogs, baboons and hyenas

are also a real danger to Savannah's cubs.

ANIMAL ROARS IN DISTANCE

SAVANNAH YIPS

Oh, right, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Here they are.

At long last.

So the cubs were on the other side

and they're going to work their way round.

The bold cub, Suma, races back to her mum.

She seems to be the leader of the pack.

It's a happy day for the family.

The cubs are ravenous,

but Savannah's only brought down a young oryx.

This meal won't sustain her cubs for long.

Six-month-old cheetah cubs

need to eat 1kg of meat daily,

so Savannah needs to be making big kills every other day.

A tall order in today's Kalahari.

Climate change has brought a devastating drought to the region.

So how serious is this drought in your experience,

across your life, as far as you can remember?

It's quite serious. This has been going for ten years now.

And how have the cheetah been affected?

They have been affected very seriously.

With the drought,

we don't have enough grass cover,

then you just have bare ground.

Bare ground means no food

and then that becomes a serious issue for the antelope.

And when the grazing animals suffer,

so do cheetahs.

They depend on a healthy population to feed their cubs,

but antelope here aren't breeding in big enough numbers.

In South Africa,

temperatures are rising at twice the global average rate,

so the problems facing cheetahs

are not confined to the arid plains of the Kalahari.

I want to see how other cheetah mums are coping

with South Africa's changing climate.

At Samara Reserve in the Great Karoo wilderness,

800km to the south,

cheetah kittens have been born.

Head ranger Julius Mkhize is keeping up with the new arrivals.

Rowan. Rowan. Come in, Rowan.

ROWAN: Standing by, Julius.

Yeah, Rowan, have you located the signal of Chilli?

This cheetah mum wears a radio collar

so she's easily tracked and monitored by researchers.

This is Chilli.

She's a year older than Savannah

and also on her third litter.

But with newborns, the challenges in keeping them fed and safe

are even more intense.

Chilli is our alpha female here at Samara Game Reserve.

She was also born here.

At the moment, we have a litter of kittens that is seven weeks old.

Then those kittens are so wonderful and they are fluffy

and you just want to cuddle them.

For the first six weeks of their lives,

Chilli kept them hidden away from predators in thick cover.

But now they're more mobile,

Chilli has moved them into the open.

This is a time when they're at their most vulnerable.

Some of the kittens more than others.

While Chilli's biggest, Chasa, never leaves her side...

..her smallest, Chebe, is often on the sidelines.

Chebe is the runt of the litter and the last to feed.

Five rapidly growing cubs require a steady supply of milk,

so Chilli should be making a kill every day.

It hasn't been easy for Chilli.

It's been almost four days now that she hasn't caught anything.

She's been trying - not that she hasn't been trying -

she has been trying, but my worry now is that her milk

is actually running low,

which then will affect the growth of the youngsters

because they, at this stage,

they depend a lot on milk to grow as quick as they can.

So it's a bit worrying for me to see her in this condition.

To make matters worse,

rising temperatures have brought extreme weather to Samara.

Heavy rains followed a drought,

bringing with them a swarm of locusts.

All of a sudden, we had this pandemic of locusts

that just took over everything.

When you have these locusts that are eating everything,

it will move the prey species from areas

where cheetahs would have actually thrived very well

into new areas.

So, yeah, it's quite a challenge for everybody.

There's no food here, so Chilli must follow the prey

that have scattered to the south of the reserve.

The kittens are very young to be travelling,

but as an experienced mum,

Chilli is taking a calculated risk.

While intrepid Chasa is at Chilli's heels...

..little Chebe lags behind,

struggling to keep up.

She's got no choice.

She's been here for nearly four, five days without any success.

She has to move out of this area.

She's thin, her milk levels are running low

so we'll go just watch and see what happens.

On their journey,

they must pass through the territories of lions...

LOW GROWL

..elephants...

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

..and buffalo,

none of which will welcome a new predator in their midst.

For the kittens,

this will be the challenge of their young lives.

Chilli's about to take her newborn kittens

on an epic journey to find food.

And my big fear is that they won't all make it.

Seeing Chilli's approach to parenting

really contrasts with Savannah's.

Both of these cheetah mums are struggling to feed their families,

but while Chilli's on the move,

Savannah is staying put,

despite the scarcity of prey.

Savannah might just be playing it safe.

I'm going to hold here for a little while.

Savannah is 100% in hunt mode this morning.

I think she's ditching the cubs,

or trying to encourage the cubs to stay behind.

Their last meal was two days ago,

so Savannah needs to make a kill soon.

See, their bellies are empty.

If she has an opportunity to hunt before it gets too hot,

I think she'll take it.

Savannah scans the landscape

for the Kalahari cheetah's preferred meal,

antelope such as steenbok and springbok.

Cheetahs' light build and speed

makes them the most successful large predator on Earth,

with an impressive 50% kill rate.

But their slender bone structure

means they can be easily injured by their prey.

And she's walking through this grass and brush, the head up high,

absolute focus.

Keeping an eye out.

Scanning all around.

It's beginning to get a little bit exciting.

OK, off she goes. Right.

And I don't want to lose her. I'm going to move on.

It's quite difficult to actually see what's happening all of the time.

She keeps on appearing and then disappearing into the brush.

So the cubs have been ditched,

they've been told to stay over here.

She's definitely going to try and hunt something.

With the scarcity of prey and four young to feed,

she can't afford to miss an opportunity.

OK, she's seen something.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

She's making a dash for it. I can't see what it is.

It might be a duiker.

Nope.

She didn't get it.

Whoa!

But that was close!

OK, I'm going to catch up with her.

The hunt may be over

but something else has caught their attention.

There's a wildcat there!

My God! Look, look, look, look, look, look!

The cubs have spotted a wildcat.

African wildcats may be small

but they're lightning fast and ferocious.

God almighty, look at that.

It's a bit of a Mexican standoff here.

Wildcats have razor-sharp claws

so the cubs need to watch their step and their eyes.

HISSING

But Suma is undeterred.

WILDCAT ROARS

I wouldn't go too close.

I would not go too close. I don't know where mum is.

It's ridiculous!

OK, she's back.

Right, Savannah's having a look.

Be careful, be careful,

be careful, be careful.

Oh! I'm...

Poor thing must be pretty terrified.

The family appears unsure about what they're up against.

And a cat like that,

hissing in that way, with very sharp claws,

they're likely to get a scratch on the nose if they're not careful.

It does look decidedly mean, though.

I wouldn't want to mess with it.

HISSING AND ROARING

Savannah and the cubs seem to have come to the same conclusion

and leave the wildcat in peace.

Every day with a cheetah

is utterly unpredictable.

Pretty magical in its own way.

This is one of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen.

As night falls, the family bed down unscathed,

but with empty stomachs.

Given their hunger,

I'm expecting Savannah to hunt at first light.

So I'm going to sleep out near the family.

It's actually quite scary,

the prospect of sleeping out in the dark of a Kalahari night.

I suppose this is about as close to nature as you can get.

Not in a tent, just sleeping out under the stars.

And it's kind of at that shift, the sun has just set

and all of the daytime animals are bedding down and going to sleep

and they are replaced by a whole range of other species

and other creatures that live their entire lives at night-time.

It's quite a dangerous time for a cheetah.

Hopefully not for me, sleeping out like this.

Generally when you go to bed,

all your worries are over

and you just put off the light and fall asleep,

whereas tonight,

I do have one or two concerns about the things

that might be creeping and crawling and prowling

and slithering about at night-time.

ANIMAL CALLS

ANIMAL CALLS

One of the few benefits...

HE YAWNS Excuse me.

..of sleeping out at night-time

is you get to... HE YAWNS

..look up at the stars

and wake up in the morning,

the sun just coming up behind me

and hopefully a five-minute search for the cheetahs.

Cross fingers.

Shouldn't take long.

So I'm just going to pack up my bed,

hit the trail.

But Savannah and the cubs have vanished.

Driven by hunger,

it seems she's made the risky move to hunt before dawn,

when other predators are on the prowl.

Richard and I want to find her as quickly as possible.

So is that one set of tracks here?

This one seems to be like an adult female.

So you think it's a mother with cubs?

Ja. It's a mother with cubs.

So how many sets of cub tracks have we got?

Have we got all four?

There's another set of tracks.

Now it's the third one. This one.

So you think there might only be three cubs?

Ja, it's only three cubs with one sub-adult female,

so we are missing one.

I mean, if this is Savannah

and she's only... there's only three cubs with her,

that's not great news. Ja.

But if there are only three cubs with this female here

that we've found the tracks of,

I...I hope it's not Savannah.

I hope it's a different...different female.

I think we just keep on searching.

Shall we get back in the vehicle and just have a look around? Ja.

To the south, in Samara,

Chilli is trekking across the plains

to get to the feeding grounds.

Her tiny kittens have no choice but to try and keep up.

Head ranger Julius Mkhize and his team

are tracking the family's movements,

while I search for Savannah up north.

We were caught by surprise to actually see

Chilli travelling such vast distances.

She actually covered about 10km.

I mean, with babies of about seven weeks old,

that's unheard of.

I mean, I've never experienced it in my 20 years of guiding.

So I think desperate times account for desperate measures,

which is why she is engaging in such long walks with these young kittens.

And, yeah, it's a bit worrying.

Hunger drives Chilli onwards.

Chasa, the boldest cub, is keeping up with mum.

But Chebe, the runt of the litter,

is struggling to maintain the pace.

It's especially worrying,

as they're about to come up against a hazard -

a deep thicket of acacia.

So she needs to get to a different area,

which, unfortunately for her, she has to go through this thicket,

which is very dangerous.

This is the territory of a large pride of lions -

deadly predators of cheetahs.

LION ROARS

But lions are not the only threat to the family's survival.

Well, in the thicket, there's a lot of things that she can encounter.

Elephants love the acacia thickets

cos they feed on acacias, which are very nutritious trees,

so those could also pose a threat.

There's also a lot of grasses which then attract buffalos.

And buffalos, we know they are very notorious at actually trampling

on the young baby predators and all of that.

So those are the risk factors that she's facing

going through this thicket over here.

If she's to feed her family,

Chilli has to navigate through the thicket

to the prey-rich area on the other side.

Her best bet is to proceed with caution

and keep a low profile.

Nature has given newborn cheetahs a helping hand to deter predators.

Their fuzzy grey mane aids in camouflage

and mimics the fearsome honey badger.

BIRD CAWS

But it doesn't fool the pied crow.

The vervet monkeys join in with a special alarm call,

warning of a predator on the ground.

Prey is almost in sight.

But for the safety of her kittens,

Chilli has no choice but to hunker down and hide.

Once again, little Chebe is last to arrive,

and just in the nick of time.

Tired, hungry and surrounded,

all Chilli can do is sit it out and hope no-one discovers them.

Chilli is definitely more confident,

more self-assured as a mum than Savannah.

She's raised nine cubs to independence in the past

versus Savannah's five.

She's much more prepared to take what seems like an incredible risk.

But the life of a cheetah, regardless of experience,

is never free from danger.

Back in the Kalahari,

Richard and I have spent five days

looking for Savannah and her cubs.

We've only found signs of three cubs, not four.

Another team of trackers has joined us in the search effort.

Eventually, we get the call...

..and it's not good news.

Richard's got onto the radio, we've hooked up with him.

He has found one of her cubs.

Oh, there it is. There it is.

Aw, man.

Very sad. Yeah.

Poor thing.

Suma, Savannah's most confident cub, has been killed by a leopard.

The lack of prey means competition between predators is intense.

Each predator wants to remove that competition.

I didn't see that coming at all.

You can see right there,

that's where...got strangled there.

She couldn't have a chance.

Yeah...

Nature's cruel.

Nature, it's cruel.

Being a cheetah, it's not easy.

You know, it's sad.

Yeah.

It's very sad,

but where nature take its own course.

Yeah. You know, you can't control it.

I mean, like, this is...

It's nature, it's competition between two predators, you know.

Out of the four cubs,

Suma was the most bold.

She was the first one to do things

that the other cubs were more scared of,

so in this situation, it might have been her character,

her sort of lack of fear that has resulted in her...

..her death.

You know, being nervous, being cautious is a good thing

for a cheetah cub

and I just hope that the other cubs are OK.

Yeah. We just have to keep looking.

Yeah.

Let's go look for Savannah's tracks.

I'm really worried about Savannah's other cubs.

God forbid it, but the same thing could have happened to...

..more than one of her cubs.

You know, I just realise how...difficult,

how challenging life is for a mother cheetah -

to find food for four hungry, growing cubs,

to keep them all safe.

Everything's stacked against them.

The next morning, we're on the road again,

back in search of Savannah's family.

My fear is that Suma might not be the only victim of the leopard.

And if Savannah tried to defend her cubs,

she may have been injured too.

WHISPERS: There they are. Oh, right, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Here they are.

Just nestled down in the bush here.

It's great to see them,

but I'm worried about what I might find.

We know that she lost Suma

but there's nothing to say, with the pressure in this area,

that she couldn't have lost more of her cubs.

She's in quite thick bushes here.

And just to reassure myself, I want to see that she's...

..that all three cubs are with her.

I can't tell whether there's two cubs or three cubs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, three! We've got three!

Yeah. Great.

HE SIGHS

That's such a relief.

Three cubs unharmed.

And I'm relieved to see Savannah is uninjured too.

We tend to think of cheetahs as being this ultimate predator,

but they're not invincible.

The fact that cheetah give birth to five cubs is their insurance policy

because not all of them make it.

And I think for Savannah,

I thought it was amazing that she still had four cubs

at eight months old when I first met her

and I thought that they were maybe out of danger,

and it just shows you that life for a cheetah family

is never, never easy.

But I do worry about Savannah -

she's a great mum, she's an amazing hunter,

but unless there are rains in this area,

things are going to get harder and harder and harder.

And the more difficult it is for her to catch food,

the less chance her cubs will survive.

PURRING

Back in Samara, Chilli has risked a long journey

through a landscape full of danger.

After a long night stranded in a thicket,

the elephant herd that trapped the hungry family has moved on.

Chilli last made a kill five days ago.

This family needs to eat.

Luckily, beyond the acacia woodland,

the open plains teem with springbok.

Her kittens are starving hungry, so she must take her chances.

With dwindling energy,

Chilli must choose her target wisely...

..but the kittens, especially the bold cub, Chasa,

are a distraction.

They don't understand the rules of the hunt.

SPRINGBOK CALL

Her prey are near Samara's boundary fence,

which might be to her advantage.

Her target is trapped.

Success.

It's a meal at last for Chilli.

Her gamble in travelling so far with such young kittens has paid off.

The kittens are digging in

and this time Chebe is not on the sidelines.

Around this age, six weeks, kittens are old enough

to have their first taste of meat.

For Julius, this is an exciting moment.

She's just caught her first springbok after a long time

and we've just been witnessing youngsters nibbling on that carcass,

which is actually exciting

cos that's what we've been wanting to see,

whether they are actually going to eat meat

or they're still reliant on milk.

But it seems like she's introducing them into meat

and it's quite exciting times.

Mum is full and we are no longer worried

that she will run out of milk, as we were before.

And the youngsters look happy, they're jumping up and down.

I see their tummies are actually quite full.

So everybody's happy - I'm happy,

Chilli's happy, kittens are happy.

Chilli's risk has paid off.

She took her kittens on this epic journey

and at times it looked really bleak,

but all five have survived...

..and she's managed to make that all-important kill.

When you're up against climate change,

you have to adapt your strategy to survive,

even if it means risking it all.

THUNDER CRASHES

Soon I'll have to leave the Kalahari,

and after the long and brutal drought,

change is on the horizon.

Rain, glorious rain!

This is what we've been waiting for.

This is exactly what Savannah has been...has been waiting for.

THUNDER RUMBLES

Have to cover up a bit.

This is really quite pleasant.

The arrival of these rains is really important

for this entire ecosystem.

The grass is going to start to sprout -

this whole places is going to green up

if the rains continue.

The more grass there is, the more vegetation,

the more food there is for the herbivores,

they start doing well,

they start producing more young

and the better it is for the cheetah.

This is the most relaxed and playful I've seen Savannah's family.

So where I come from in Scotland,

it rains a lot and the rain makes people a bit depressed.

So how does the rain make people feel here?

Here in the Kalahari, the rain makes them happy.

THEY CHUCKLE

That's why you can see also with the cheetahs,

they're not even under the shelters.

They're enjoying this.

The rain gives me hope for Savannah and her cubs.

This should be the beginning of the rainy season.

In the Kalahari, the plants and animals are adapted

to act quickly in response to water.

This arid landscape is transformed in a matter of days.

When I first arrived here,

this place was brown and dusty,

completely barren,

but after just a few huge downpours, it's sprung into life.

It's a sea of colour, a sea of green.

The benefits are profound.

Every living thing, every insect,

every plant, every bird, every predator benefits from it.

This rain has really given this place a new lease of life.

It's great to see Savannah making the most of this change

in the weather.

Following this family so closely has

shown me how these beautiful cats

live on a knife's edge

every single day.

It's such a roller-coaster ride.

This kill could not have come

at a better time.

They are all so hungry.

Just before I'm leaving Kalahari,

it is amazing, it's incredible

to see that she's still able to provide for her cubs,

even in the toughest of times.

Savannah and Chilli have shown me how the planet we are changing

is making the already hard life of a cheetah mum even harder.

While the rains have arrived

and will offer some reprieve for Savannah,

her family still face an uncertain future.

Cheetah aren't just the fastest land mammal on Earth,

I think they are the animal that maybe has to put up with

the most amount of stress and pressure,

and very, very soon

these cubs are going to have to do all of this on their own

with no-one to look after them,

no-one to look out for them.

Savannah's cubs battle to survive

as they approach independence.

Useba.

Ah, Oma's limping.

She's super skinny.

You can see her hipbones are jutting out.

Oh, yeah.

And I learn of a radical idea

that could help save Africa's cheetah families.

This is the last of what our future have.

If we don't protect it, it's going to be doomed.

This is the Kalahari,

and I've come here to get to know

one of the most extraordinary animals on the planet,

one of the most proficient predators,

one of the most beautiful cats in the world.

Cheetah.

The world's fastest land animal

goes from 0 to 60 in three seconds.

Despite their supreme speed,

these predators are surprisingly vulnerable.

You know, I just realise how difficult, how challenging

life is for a mother cheetah - everything stacked against them.

Across Africa, cheetah numbers are collapsing,

so I've been following two cheetah families

to see what threatens their survival.

This is my first opportunity to truly get to know

cheetah in the wild, and the most exciting part of that

is I'm going to be doing it on foot.

On foot, I'll experience the same dangers they do.

Last time, I followed Savannah, who had lost two cubs...

..and confident mother Chilli, with her newborn kittens now thriving.

This time, I'm sticking with Savannah,

as her cubs reach a critical point in their fight to survive...

She's super skinny -

you can see her hip bones are jutting out.

..and I meet two brothers whose lives here hang in the balance.

It would be sad if they're related to Savannah,

cos I'd hate for them to have to be

translocated somewhere else. Yeah.

By following these two families,

I hope to learn what the future holds for Africa's cheetahs.

I've returned to South Africa, back to the wilds of the Kalahari.

I'm here to catch up with Savannah and her three cubs.

I want to find out if these three fast-growing cubs

have got what it takes to make it to independence.

Nine months ago, I was accepted into Savannah's family.

Walking alongside them, I saw a mother's battle

for her cubs' survival.

Extreme drought led to a scarcity of food...

..and tragedy struck.

Aww, man!

Poor thing.

I was moved by this family's struggle,

so I'm back to see if their fortunes have turned around.

I want to see how the cubs cope

as Mum pushes them towards eventual independence.

Savannah and the cubs' home in Tswalu Reserve

lies in the heart of the Kalahari.

I'm back with conservationist and cheetah expert Richard Satekge.

I'm excited to see the family,

but first we've got to track them down.

Eagle? And some kind of tracks here.

It looks like they might be in trouble.

Hyena tracks.

Cheetah tracks there... Oh, gosh! ..and there.

So she was running. There's cheetah tracks...

It looks like there was a little bit of a fight

between the hyenas and the cheetahs -

a little bit of, er,

activities here, happening here. Yeah, yeah.

This concerns me.

Attack by hyena is a major cause of cheetah cub mortality.

What she did there, she became a little...

..a little skittish... Skidding. Running from side to side.

Why would she do that?

To try to sort of, like,

offend the other hyenas just to get away.

But at this moment, the youngsters could have spread away... Yeah.

..and then Mum trying to defend...

HYENA CACKLES

Listen to that.

What was that? That is a spotted hyena.

Oh, is it? Yeah.

So they're still here. Yeah.

But I don't think Mum could handle the two hyenas. Yeah.

Hyenas could easily kill Savannah, forget about the cubs.

To find signs like this in the sand is really worrying.

Spotted hyena is a big, powerful, formidable predator,

and there's clearly been an altercation,

some kind of encounter here.

Cheetahs are built to run.

They're not built to fight.

I'm really worried about what we might find.

Richard calls on backup from the reserve's trackers.

Expanding their search beyond Savannah's last location,

they make a tragic discovery.

They found the remains of yet another of Savannah's cubs,

one of her sons, little Motsumi.

It's a sad reminder of the fragility of these cats.

It's hard not to be upset by that,

um, because it's not just the loss

of one of Savannah's cubs -

cheetah are in such a critical state in Africa,

that that's a significant loss of just the death of this cub...

..and it's a huge impact.

A huge loss to cheetahs in Africa.

On average, only two cubs in each litter survive to independence.

I just hope that Savannah's remaining two will make it.

The next morning, I set out to find Savannah,

hopefully with her cubs Seba and Morwa.

The signs in the sand are encouraging.

OK, Savannah is around here somewhere.

There's fresh tracks,

tracks of three cheetah - one big, two smaller.

So she's very close.

I think she's out in front of me somewhere.

I move in carefully to reacquaint myself with the family.

I think they're in the thicket in front of me,

but I'm a little bit reluctant at this stage

to go into the thick stuff.

It's been a while since I've seen her,

I don't want to startle her.

I want her to know that I'm here, and maybe see me from a distance,

before I try and get any closer.

I've been away for nine months.

I just hope they remember me.

There she is.

Oh, there they all are!

Three of them in a tight cluster

in that little thicket in front of me.

Seba and Morwa are now 15 months old,

and the change is striking.

It's wonderful to see her and both of her cubs,

and the cubs have really grown.

I barely recognise them.

And, looking at them,

there's a size difference between them and Savannah

but, if you see them individually,

it's very difficult to tell who's who.

Incredibly, after all this time,

the family seems to be a little more than interested in my return.

Feeling somewhat surrounded here...

..and, I have to admit, a little bit uncomfortable.

And the closer these cats get, the larger they seem to become.

This guy isn't even the biggest,

and he's making me feel decidedly uncomfortable.

I don't like the way you're looking at me.

No, you can't eat me.

I hope.

Cheetah cubs become independent around 18 months old,

and although the cubs have grown physically,

I want to see if they've progressed developmentally -

especially when it comes to their most critical survival skill.

Hunting.

It's quite incredible to think that, within three months,

these two cubs will be on their own.

And, um, yeah, it's a worry.

Seba and Morwa have strong instincts,

but becoming a skilled predator

relies on getting an education from Mum.

OK, she's on the move, and definitely hunting.

The cubs are a good 50 metres behind,

so I'm going to see if I can skulk round and keep up with her.

Last time I saw them, the cubs were left behind when Savannah hunted.

Now, they follow.

She's not picking one direction

and following that route,

she's, um...

..meandering,

sniffing the air,

checking out every thicket.

Savannah weaves through the landscape.

This could be the cubs' opportunity to observe a hunting masterclass.

This is when things really ramp up.

This is Savannah telling the cubs

to get involved.

"Follow me.

"When you know I've caught something, come in

"and help if you can, but at least get that experience

"of paws on a live animal."

OK, let's go.

She's going into very thick, bushy area here.

I'll try and skirt round the edge.

But if there's something in here,

she might get lucky.

It's stealth and silence and persistence

that is going to get her next meal.

To become successful hunters,

the cubs need this lesson in stealth.

Very intently looking...

..into the bushes.

Given the bushy landscape, she may well be teaching her cubs

the art of the ambush.

The trees conceal Savannah's attack.

It's a success.

SHE GROWLS

She's taught the cubs, it's not all about the chase.

She's still not let go of the jugular.

She's not taking any risks -

even if it appears dead, it might not necessarily be dead.

We think of cheetahs as high-speed pursuit predators,

but they're also adaptable ambush hunters.

In catching a duiker - one of the Kalahari's smaller antelopes -

she's giving her cubs a chance to handle live prey.

The cubs help Mum dispatch the duiker with ease.

The progress they've made since I last saw them is encouraging,

but they're not quite grown up yet.

After a long afternoon of feeding and snoozing,

at dusk, Seba and Morwa get playful.

He's got an obsession with my rucksack.

It doesn't smell of anything other than sweaty Scotsman.

But it seems sweaty Scotsman

is like catnip to Morwa.

Don't bite it!

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!

No. MORWA HISSES

You can hiss at my coat, but just don't bite it.

Hey.

Ps-ps-ps-ps-ps-ps!

Leave it.

Nine months ago, the cubs kept their distance.

Now, not so much.

Please, no.

No, no, no, no.

That is inedible.

OK, fella, put it down.

Oh, OK. It's three against one. I get it.

Right. So, Mum's got my camera...

..while you've got my coat,

Seba, you're being reasonably well-behaved at the moment.

Come on, guys.

Right, just leave it.

Yeah, one wrong move and I could get myself into trouble here.

OK, gosh.

They're all wide-eyed...and eager.

It's funny, I've seen that with other cats -

that, when it gets dark,

there's a change in behaviour...

I'm a little bit scared about what you might do

if I try and push you away from that.

A bit more.

It's not worth beating up a Scotsman for.

Come on.

Oh, that's a bit of an angry-looking face.

Oh, Christ, look at him now.

No, no, no, no.

Shoo!

Shoo!

Scaredy cats!

OK, it's time to call it a day.

See you tomorrow.

Savannah and the cubs' home seems pristine,

so it's hard to believe that this place

was not always pure wilderness.

For eight decades, their territory was farmland -

until the '90s, when the land was purchased by a British entrepreneur

and re-wilded to create the Tswalu Reserve.

All that remains is a lone farmhouse.

Today, farmers are expanding into cheetah territory

across much of Africa.

I want to understand how it affects these cats.

Wow, it's kind of eerie.

Knock, knock! Anyone home?

It's a really tough life to be living out here.

It's quite difficult to live in this kind of area.

I mean, like, a person who grew up in this kind of area

should be strong.

Yeah, it's not an easy existence.

There's an article here...

..which is... Let's see what date is it.

January 16th, 1969.

That's quite interesting. Gosh, it's just funny thinking,

like, at some point in January 1969,

there was somebody in this house... Reading this article...

..with no knowledge of the problems that the world is facing today.

Yeah.

In the 80 years this farm operated,

cheetah numbers plummeted.

50 years ago, this place would have been full of cows, presumably.

Definitely, in this area of the Kalahari,

mostly agriculture, it would be cattle, goats and sheep.

That is going to also attract predators,

and then that becomes a problem to balance

for cheetah habitat and farms,

which... It becomes a conflict between cheetahs and humans.

Richard very politely touched on the conflict

between farmers and cheetahs.

For as long as human beings have raised livestock,

there's always been that desire to eliminate the competition.

If any cheetah was to predate on people's livestock,

there still exists that chance that they could be shot or poisoned,

because they're threatening people's livelihoods.

But it's not just the loss of cheetahs at the hands of farmers

that led to their dramatic decline.

The cheetahs' territory became overgrazed,

and their natural prey all but disappeared.

90% of the habitat, it has been taken over by human activities,

which is the biggest threat the cheetah has got.

Across Africa, farms like this

are the main reason for cheetahs' decline.

The good news is, this farm and others like it

have been reclaimed for wildlife in this part of the Kalahari.

It's about 100,000 hectares,

which is surrounded by fences all along the boundary,

and the fences, that helps the predators like cheetah

not to go over to our neighbouring farms.

I think when people think of somewhere like the Kalahari,

they think of an endless wilderness.

So if I was to walk in any direction, sooner or later

I would bump into a fence?

Definitely, you're going to bump into a fence.

And when it comes to cheetahs,

defence reserves like this, is it working for them?

South Africa is the only country around the world

where the cheetah population is increasing. Wow.

So the numbers are going up? It's working effectively.

Fences in the wilderness are controversial -

you are, in essence, restricting the free movement of wild animals.

But when it comes to a vulnerable species, like the cheetah,

maybe at present, maybe in the short term,

that is the only viable solution and it is paying off.

Cheetah numbers are going up.

South Africa is the only country in the world

that has an increasing cheetah population.

While Savannah and her cubs are protected from human conflict,

life here is still a struggle to survive.

The family haven't eaten for days.

In search of prey, they've moved to the very edge of the reserve.

The landscape here is rocky, mountainous and treacherous

for a pursuit predator.

Terrain like this is the last place

that I would expect to find a cheetah,

and it's a dangerous move for a mother

to bring her cubs up here. Cheetahs are designed for speed.

They've got a delicate bone structure, they're long-limbed.

To come somewhere like this

with cubs that are still finding their feet is risky,

because if any of these cheetahs were to pick up

even a minor injury - twisted an ankle,

got a leg trapped between the rocks - that could, in time, prove fatal.

So coming to a place like this seems a fairly risky strategy.

While Savannah scales the rock face with ease,

Seba and Morwa struggle to get a foothold.

They're inexperienced on this ground.

Savannah might be introducing her cubs to every area in her territory.

They need to be adaptable and resilient

if they're to survive once they leave her care.

At the top, Savannah's lesson for her cubs becomes clear.

Potential prey move confidently over the rocks.

But this territory favours the prey, not the predator.

The cheetah, they're leggy, they're fast,

they're designed for speed -

not to run over a boulder field.

For now, all they can do is watch a potential meal

make an easy getaway.

That's maybe too much of a stretch to go for an animal of that size.

The family pushes on...

..but then they're stopped in their tracks

at the reserve's boundary.

I'm sure that Savannah views these fences as an inconvenience.

If these fences weren't here,

she would be able to keep on walking

but, inevitably, if she keeps walking out of the protected area,

she's going to run into trouble.

She's going to start meeting the human population,

going to venture onto ranches,

and that's where the danger is.

Protected from human conflict the family might be,

but right now... there's no prey in sight.

The next morning, Richard takes me to meet a pair of male cheetahs

that share Savannah's territory.

He tells me one of them might be the father of Seba and Morwa,

but he wants to find out for sure.

In fenced reserves, working out the family tree

is key to managing the population.

We've got both male cheetahs,

in the bush about 30 metres in front of me.

This is Noka and Neo.

Unlike female cheetahs, males sometimes form hunting partnerships.

A coalition, usually of brothers -

behaviour that is unique to lions and cheetahs

among the world's large cats.

Do you know how old they are?

Yes, they are seven years old.

I've known this coalition since they were born.

Oh, really?

You must feel very close to both of these cats.

Yes. Almost like family.

Without them, something would be missing. Yeah.

A lot of people think of cheetahs and think that they're solitary,

but this is a brother-brother coalition.

Yeah. They've been, like, hunting together all the time,

teamwork for everything that they do.

Are they likely to spend the rest of their lives together?

Definitely.

Richard is hoping for an opportunity

to get samples from the brothers for a DNA test.

Being in a fenced reserve, there is a danger of inbreeding.

The hope is that Noka and Neo are not related to Savannah.

That would be bad news for the health

of Tswalu's cheetah population.

This is a very exciting moment, cos I've just seen Neo

answer a call of nature down by that bush.

So we're going on a poo hunt - we're going to find a big one!

And with that sample, we should be able to do a genetic test

on this cat. Should we go down?

I think it was that little bush there.

Now, don't stand in it.

There we go. Right there.

It's as black as coal.

OK, Gordon, you can do the honour. Thank you, so kind.

As a dog owner, this is nothing new.

Does it have to be a big bit?

It doesn't have to be big. That smells...

Definitely smelly.

I mean, like all the carnivores - lion...

..hyenas, all the meat-eaters,

but if you get to the poo of the antelope,

not smelly as the meat eaters.

Not at all.

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. Yep!

Despite appearances, this is gold dust for DNA.

So what will you do if you find out that these two males

are related to Savannah?

What we will do is that we will bring other cheetahs in

from some other protective place to bring new genes in,

and move Neo and Noka out,

as they have already served their bloodline.

The cheetahs here are part of South Africa's Metapopulation Project,

that relocates cheetahs between 61 fenced reserves.

This helps prevent cheetahs from inbreeding.

It works so well that, since the project started a decade ago,

the cheetah population has become more genetically diverse

and their numbers have doubled.

I think people would be so surprised that human beings

are having to be so involved in the lives of these cats.

We're talking, like, a very vulnerable species.

This is the last of what our future have - if we don't protect it,

it's going to be doomed.

It does come as a surprise to find out that something as simple,

something as natural as which cheetah mates with which,

is controlled by people.

So it's like a matchmaking service for the cheetah population.

But if we want to prevent inbreeding,

people have to control that, people have to get involved.

Poo scooped, I feel it's time

I got to know these brothers a little better.

We'll move in a little bit closer.

So this camera is very light, so if you want to run

I can run behind you.

Noka is the more dominant of the brothers

and seems interested in our presence.

Let me just... Oh, he's getting up. OK.

Moving towards us.

OK.

There's something different about their characters.

Noka is chilled out, relaxed,

but with Neo, he is really cautious.

He's always looking over his shoulder, and I wonder...

He's got that injury to his nose.

There's a little sort of flap on his nostril,

which is largely healed up now - but at the time

that would have been quite a traumatic injury,

and it may be that that has shaped his character.

It's a kind of physical scar,

but physical scars can also leave a bit of a mental, emotional scar.

Their stomachs are bulging.

Being in a coalition - hunting together -

means they can kill much bigger prey than Savannah's capable of.

Oh, yeah. Look at that.

That's a big old meal.

They've brought down a large antelope, weighing over 200 kilos -

about three times their size.

For a single cheetah,

it'd be a real struggle to bring down an antelope of this size,

but for two males like this,

they've got a wider variety of prey that they can go for -

they can go for bigger animals.

They can employ a bit of strategy

and work together to catch their prey.

Up he is. Look at that.

Look at the size of his belly.

With this kill, do you think they'll be able to finish it all?

I don't think they will be lucky. I mean, like, we got...

..spotted hyena, we've got brown hyenas, we've got jackals...

You know, those are competitors.

They're going to come here, in any time, just as the sun goes down,

and then...game over!

HE CHUCKLES

Unlike leopards, cheetahs lack the strength or hooked claws,

to drag their prey up a tree to protect it.

So they have to be speedy eaters.

While the boys fill up before nightfall...

..Savannah's family haven't eaten for five days.

Life is tougher for them.

Cheetah mothers hunt alone to provide for their cubs.

For Seba, the lack of food is taking its toll.

Poor Seba...

..is at the back.

Ah, almost limping.

Yeah, her condition is in a much worse way than the other two.

Definitely lacking in energy.

She's super skinny. You can see her hip bones are jutting out.

I can't tell whether her limp is from injury or utter exhaustion.

Either way, it points to the seriousness

of the family situation.

When food's scarce and cheetahs get hungrier,

it's very easy to see how that hunger affects them

as an individual.

So the mum is always going to be motivated,

she's always going to be out in front,

constantly searching for food.

But for cubs, the weakest, hungriest cub is going to lag behind -

and the longer they go without food,

the greater that distance between them comes.

There's something not quite right with Seba. She's reluctant to move.

When she does get up, she's quite stiff, moving quite slowly.

When she's as skinny as this,

the tank is truly running on empty.

So every move that she has to make becomes more laboured.

Even though Seba lags behind, she's still on high alert.

You might think that for a young cub that's tired, that's low on energy,

it would want to lag behind and let its mum do all of the hard work,

but as a cheetah cub grows in size and strength,

it also grows in this awareness and knowledge of its responsibility,

because its ability to help its mum

might make a crucial difference in a hunt.

Seba has caught sight of something.

A bat-eared fox.

It's a chance for a cub to become a hunter.

This fox is too quick for a weakened Seba.

With even small prey giving the family the slip,

the situation is critical.

Lack of food is not their only problem.

They need to drink.

Seba and Morwa desperately search

at a dried-up water hole.

At some times of year, just finding water

is incredibly difficult in the Kalahari.

One thing that a cheetah can do is supplement its water intake

by drinking blood that has pooled in the body cavities

of the animals that they've killed.

But if there's no standing water around,

the only opportunity that a cheetah has

of quenching its thirst is to make a kill.

Thirst unquenched,

the family conserves energy in the heat of the day.

And Seba answers the call of nature.

This is an opportunity to find out who her dad is,

and whether she's inbred.

We have it.

Dung beetles already making off with our sample.

That's so cool.

Before they finish it all, shall we take our sample?

We should. I'm going to take a dung beetle with me here.

It's a little loaded for them.

You can share it around.

There's enough poo to go round.

So we've got this sample from one of the cubs,

and we've got Neo's sample.

Do you know how many other male cheetahs are out here?

From my own observation,

I'll say I know of seven males that I know of.

I'd love to know if one of the brothers was a father of the cubs,

and it would be sad if they're related to Savannah,

cos I'd hate for them to have to be

translocated somewhere... somewhere else. Yeah.

With the cheetah population being so small,

we don't know how...

There could be a relationship if we had a big pot of genes,

then we know, OK, this is going to be a different,

but the smaller the pot, the more there could be a relationship.

I'm heading back out to find potential dads Noka and Neo.

Sharing the same territory as Savannah's family,

they are also struggling to find prey.

Have you found the two male cheetahs?

Last time I saw them was on a kill four days ago,

and the trackers tell me they haven't eaten since.

One of our camera team, Vim Forster,

has been on the tail of the brothers all morning,

and they have finally come to a halt.

Hey, Vim, I don't really need to ask what's gone on here.

Yeah, thanks, Gordon! It took a while.

It's a lot of tracking this morning,

but we finally managed to get them.

Unfortunately, I only had my cellphone camera, so...

Did you film it? Yeah, I got us some, of course.

Let me see it. You have to!

Oh, wow!

Oh, my gosh!

Cheetahs kill using strangulation.

Both boys have their victim by the throat.

They're just holding on, just waiting for it to stop struggling.

Strangulation is the safest way to subdue prey,

but can take up to ten minutes.

That's a male hartebeest, as well.

Strong animal. And, unsurprisingly,

they like to hunt big antelope.

One of the local guides said that they just walk past springbok,

so it's interesting with springbok in the Kalahari

is the favourite prey for cheetah,

but it seems like they specialise in the bigger antelope.

A hartebeest can reach a top speed of 55km per hour,

and its evasion tactic - to run in zigzags - is visible in the sand.

If they do chase, then they're not sure where the hartebeest

is going to go.

You know, if it veered off right, the other brother was in that area.

He could have cut it off. Yeah. Probably some teamwork,

and I think these guys have been, you know,

working together for a long time,

so they know what the other one will do.

Probably it's like instinct.

Well, yeah, there must be a lot of mind-reading going on between them.

They're kind of inseparable from one another.

Body language, I suppose, as well.

HEAVY PANTING

They're both still puffing and panting.

Literally this kill happened ten,

15 minutes before I arrived.

OK, I'm going to hold here for a little while.

Settle down.

Noka and Neo haven't eaten for four days.

So they've got their first meal

and, instead of squabbling,

instead of fighting over the kill,

they are a picture of harmony.

Both of their heads, side by side,

almost knock against each other.

If that were a lion on a kill,

a pride of lions,

all hell would break loose.

There's just something really, really harmonious -

they've got a real respect for one another.

So, as inhospitable as this place is,

these two boys are still...

..rocking it!

I don't think you could say that the life of a cheetah was ever easy,

but for these two brothers, they have a less difficult time of it

when it comes to hunting than Savannah.

They're bigger, they're stronger,

they can work together, so they can take down much larger prey.

They don't have dependents - they're not looking after tiny cubs.

When it comes to Savannah, there's a tolerance of her

in the boys' territory

because, if they haven't already,

sooner or later, one of these males

may well want to mate with her.

While the brothers feast, Savannah and the cubs are now on day six

without food or water.

But finally, there's a glimmer of hope.

The exhausted family finds a water hole.

This time, there's plenty to drink.

For a hungry, thirsty cheetah family

that have gone for days and days without any sustenance,

it must be a huge relief to find that little bit of sustenance,

even if it is in the form of water.

Cheetahs can go for round about ten days without water,

but as that period without a drink wears on,

their ability to hunt is impaired.

That dehydration will affect their physiology.

So this little source of water

is going to give them a bit of an extra boost,

it's going to reinvigorate them.

Are you expecting something delicious to show up?

Not picky.

Something like an impala or a kudu.

Something tasty.

It's just boring old me.

Despite their dire circumstances,

the family seems happy with me being close...

..and I can see how much they're pulling together as a unit.

It is really lovely to see these three cats together.

It's a really tight bond.

Even after all of this, they still want to be beside each other.

Rejuvenated after a drink,

the family continues their long search for prey.

Impala.

The males jousting for dominance are distracted.

A perfect opportunity for Savannah to save her cubs from starvation.

Savannah has started to stalk.

Morwa's behind her.

With the situation as desperate as it is,

this might not be the best time for a hunting lesson.

Cheetahs are a pursuit predator, but it doesn't mean

that as soon as they spot an animal that they think

they might be able to catch, they'll run straight at it.

Where there's cover, what they'll do first is...recce

and scout out exactly where that animal is,

scout out the terrain so they can try and sort of

map ahead, before engaging in a high-speed chase,

and that's what'll lead to success.

But inexperienced Morwa doesn't have the stealth

of his mother.

The impala are alerted.

She's going, she's going, she's moving...

..he's moving.

The nimble prey make a quick escape across the rocks.

Morwa's eagerness to learn

might have cost the family their last chance.

The job of a cheetah mum isn't just to protect and provide

for her cubs - hunting is the most valuable life lesson

that she'll teach them,

so she'll train them up over a period of a year,

and it's this slow learning curve for a cub

that can sometimes lead to

the family missing out on a hunt.

So for a cub at this important stage of life,

sometimes practice makes perfect,

but other times you learn from your mistakes.

For the family, though, this blunder

could not have come at a worse time.

Previously, Richard and I collected DNA samples

for all the cheetahs to determine their family tree.

If there is inbreeding, then the brothers will have to be relocated

to another reserve.

So the results are in.

And the moment of truth is that

Noka and Neo are not the father of Savannah's cubs.

Really? Yes. That's interesting.

I think because they overlap so much,

I sort of naturally assumed that one of them might be the father.

We thought the same thing,

which is it could be another male - a roaming male around here.

And so did the results show

that they're not related to Savannah, either?

Not related to Savannah, not related to the cubs.

And what does that mean for both of these boys?

That means that then we're not going to move them out.

They're going to stay

so that they can invest their genes here at Tswalu.

We should maybe go over and tell them.

I think they already realised that,

because they already introduced themselves to Savannah.

So Savannah has been sniffing around here,

maybe looking for a new boyfriend?

She's looking for a boyfriend.

Even although she still has cubs, that will be on her mind -

the next litter that she has - that's incredible.

Yeah. It's like a really tough life for a mother cheetah.

It's not one litter and it's over and done with,

it's one litter and then the next one and the next one,

and keep doing it as long as she can.

But right now, I don't know whether Seba and Morwa

will survive even another week.

It's eight days since the family last ate.

They can't go on much longer without food.

They're at breaking point.

There is prey.

Oryx.

But with strength and these long horns,

oryx are a formidable opponent.

In her weakened state, Savannah decides not to take the risk

and heads again for the rocky mountains.

The advantage of being up in the mountains like this

is you've got a much better, much bigger overview of the area

in front of you. And for a hungry cheetah that's getting desperate,

it'll help them pinpoint where the prey is,

rather than wandering through the trees,

using up lots of energy, hoping that you're going to bump into something.

A group of female kudu graze nearby.

Savannah and the cubs edge closer.

Kudus have got exceptionally good hearing,

they've got a good sense of smell.

They don't necessarily have to see a predator to know that it's there.

The all-important thing when hunting

is to approach downwind from the animal.

This could be the family's last chance.

Kudu are one of Africa's largest antelopes.

I can't help but think the choice of target and terrain

is not in their favour.

She's trying to get closer.

There's absolutely no way that she's going to be able

to reach top speed or anywhere near it.

This is not the ideal hunting ground for a cheetah,

but Savannah has no choice.

Desperate times call for desperate measures,

and this is not the kind of place that a cheetah should be hunting.

If they're too close, the kudu could sense them, and slip away.

The long grass provides excellent cover.

But while Savannah is perfectly camouflaged...

Savannah hasn't moved a muscle. Not a whisker, not a twitch.

..the same can't be said for Morwa.

He's joining the hunt again,

but has he learned from past mistakes?

Morwa is nonchalantly sitting in a bush,

just about four metres away from her, looking around.

If Morwa blows her cover again,

the family are in serious danger of starvation.

Even the slightest movement,

the prey will pick up on and that will be it.

KUDU BARKS

Sensing danger, the kudu sound the alarm.

KUDU BARKS

They've spotted Morwa, not Savannah.

It just shows you how much this young male has to learn.

He's learnt enough that he wants to be involved in the hunt,

but he certainly hasn't learned enough to know just to stay still.

Savannah recognises that she must act quickly,

before the opportunity of a life-saving meal is gone.

OK, she's started to move a little bit more.

Morwa hangs back.

Savannah uses tree cover to inch ever closer.

Inch, by inch, by inch.

KUDU BARKS

With every last ounce of energy,

Savannah launches her attack.

SQUEALING

The thicket conceals the end of the chase.

Success will save their lives.

Oh, it's just... I find that extraordinary.

I suppose maybe one advantage that she's got

is that it is rough ground, but she's chasing after an animal

that is also running over this rocky ground.

This is the most important kill

in Seba and Morwa's lives.

The family fills their empty stomachs.

As soon as I saw Savannah come into this area, I thought,

she's really pushing the boundaries of what she's capable of -

what any cheetah might be capable of - but, God, against the odds,

she's done it.

Full from their long-anticipated

and well-earned meal,

the family rest under a tree.

Morwa has learned a valuable lesson.

And Seba looks stronger.

The cubs have learned which prey to target...

..how to stalk, and to never give up.

Crucial survival lessons

on their road to independence.

This is what it's like to be a cheetah -

you're living your life on a knife edge,

it's feast and famine -

and if this cheetah family can survive through the things

that I've seen them make it through, who knows?

They might be able to survive anything.

Leaving the Kalahari,

I've got nothing but respect

for Savannah's family.

I'm looking at two maturing cubs

on the threshold of independence.

They've got Savannah,

this incredible mum.

She has done an incredible job

through really tough times.

And she may have lost three of her cubs,

but she still has these two beauties

just on the very brink of independence.

And that is no mean feat.

Cheetahs really are a remarkable cat.

Having shared their world with them,

I've seen them finding food, avoiding predators -

those are the challenges that they can endure -

but, really, it's the imbalances in their ecosystem

that are caused by us that poses the biggest threat to them.

And, really, the future of these cats is entirely in our hands,

but if we make the right decisions - not just for this family,

but for cheetahs across Africa -

maybe it's a future that we can share.

Cheetahs and people.