Original subtitles

Lights off.

Hang on. BLEEP! We've got another lion.

I think this is Madumo and Big Toe, they've come in!

The male lions from the Xudum pride are fighting

to protect their whole family...

They're on them. They're on them.

..and are battling with aggressive intruder males.

Ah, jeez, this could be a fight to the death.

SNARLING

If Madumo and Big Toe lose their power, that just changes everything.

The Okavango Delta in Botswana.

ELEPHANTS TRUMPET

One of Africa's last wildernesses.

The Okavango Delta is an oasis in the desert,

it's a miracle in itself.

And it's a stronghold for Africa's big cats.

Lion...

..cheetah...

..and leopard.

This is nature at its absolute finest.

Now, for the very first time,

a team of local and international wildlife film-makers

is working together to record the cats' lives like never before.

Using the latest technology...

We're going to be able to see things in a completely different light

and tell stories in a completely different way.

..they'll follow individual big cats...

..for six months,

through the day...

This is crazy. This is a battle.

..and the night...

This is a military-grade thermal-imaging camera.

Lions have got amazing night-vision, but it's not as good as this.

..capturing their behaviour...

He's got the cub. He's got the cub.

..24 hours a day.

Welcome to the Okavango Delta.

GROWLING

It gets crazy.

SNARLING

MEWLING

RADIO BEEPS

Wildlife cameraman Gordon is searching for the Xudum pride males

after losing them during the night.

There's absolutely no sign of Big Toe and Madumo.

I'm beginning to get a little bit worried.

Hope that we come across them.

Here we go.

Big tracks.

Two sets.

Look, look, look! There.

They look absolutely exhausted.

Big Toe hasn't even... raised his head.

It almost looks as if he's no longer with us.

Is he OK?

OK.

These boys are looking very, very tired.

They don't have the swagger that they had before.

Last night, Big Toe and Madumo fought with intruder male lions

for over an hour...

Right, Madumo is up.

Oh, look at this.

Very pronounced limp.

LOW GROWLING

Ah, yeah, one of our boys was getting properly roughed up,

and it must have been Madumo - look at how he's walking.

He's in real pain.

It just shows you that there are other lions out here

that can match them pound-for-pound.

As dominant pride males,

Madumo and Big Toe's main role is to protect their family.

If Madumo and Big Toe lose their power,

that just changes everything for the entire pride.

For the cubs especially.

If new males came in, they would kill them,

without a shadow of a doubt.

Because the Xudum territory is rich, it's a lion paradise,

someone's going to show up

and going to knock the crowns clean off their head.

And those days...may be upon us.

With Madumo and Big Toe injured...

..the threat of intruder male lions hangs over the pride.

PLAYFUL MEOWING

At particular risk are these inexperienced youngsters.

These two are absolute clowns.

Colin and Nkgonne are two-year-old subadult males.

Oh, that's a wobbly tree.

Nkgonne's joining.

Oh! That doesn't look like a good idea.

These teenagers are physically bigger than the cubs,

but they're not behaving like adults yet.

What a pose. His belly just resting on the trunk.

He looks so uncomfortable.

I can hear the entire male population going, "Oooh!"

You can definitely see a lot of Colin's character.

He's always a bit more outlandish than his brother Nkgonne.

What is your next move?

Think very carefully about this one.

LOW GROWL

Oh, he's falling, he's falling...!

ANNA CHUCKLES No!

It is utterly hilarious

to think that these two are supposed to be nearly independent, and yet...

..here they are, playing around like two big cubs.

Colin and Nkgonne are at a critical stage in the lives.

The team is following them to see how things play out.

The Big Cats film crew is covering 150 square miles

of the Okavango Delta.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

It's the middle of the dry season.

After the biggest wildfire in five years, the land is bone dry.

Despite this, it's a good time of year for leopards to breed.

Xudum is the resident female leopard.

At five years old, she's ready to have cubs.

She's been eating well, but she's becoming quite a stocky leopard.

Really filling out like an adult female, which is quite nice.

She's coming on as a cat.

It's a beautiful thing to see.

I just want her to have cubs.

Xudum has recently mastered hunting from trees.

Brad and Tristen are with her in one her favourite spots.

Like clockwork, she's just got up another ebony tree,

positioning herself for potential ambush.

SNUFFLING

There's a whole big herd of impala just to our south.

Wait one second, she's...just sat up.

She's twitching.

And there she goes!

And she's jumped. OK.

Yeah, Brad, she's just jumped out of the tree, and she's got one.

Last time she made a kill,

she sat with it for a long time

before she started to eat.

This time,

it looks like she's not wasting any time to get stuck in.

Mating season is physically demanding on female leopards...

I think it's going to be a stressful time for Xudum.

She's got her work cut out for her.

..so Xudum is ensuring she keeps her meal.

Leopards are solitary and quite small,

so they are ranked quite low

when it comes to losing their kills to other predators.

Good girl.

She's done well. She's pushed it up into the fork of a tree.

The challenge for Xudum now is finding the right mate.

At camp, Gordon is teaming up

with lion specialist Dr Robynne Kotze

from Oxford University.

So that point over there, that's got his GPS collar number.

Robynne has known the Xudum pride for more than a decade...

So if we open that, that gives us his latest location.

..and has fitted Colin with a satellite collar.

Let's go.

Dominant pride males Big Toe and Madumo haven't been seen for days.

With intruder males still around...

Here they are. Success!

..teenagers Colin and Nkgonne are particularly vulnerable.

So you collared him how long ago?

About a year.

We had to fit his collar with space so that he could grow -

obviously he's still a growing boy.

But we also don't want to fit it too loosely

that he can pull it over his head.

We kind of try and monitor them from about two years old,

expecting that at any point if the big males decide

they're out, that they're going to leave.

Why would they not want to keep another male in the pride?

At this age, these males will be quite useful in terms of hunting,

but now the females will start mating again,

and obviously the next litter of cubs will come in.

And when that happens, they don't really want these boys around,

because they're competition for food.

But presumably, if Colin had his own way,

he'd just stay exactly where he was. Oh, yeah.

Male lions, they, for sure, choose the path of least resistance,

and so it's really easy for him to kind of hang around,

let the mums do all the work and still be able to have good meals.

At two years old,

male lions are often pushed out of the family

to find a pride of their own.

She's not too happy with him being around,

and this is kind of what happens now when he's this age,

is even the adult lionesses will start showing

a little bit of discomfort.

Until they reach their prime, five, six years old,

they've basically got to stay out of the way

from not only their dads but also big males from other prides.

There's a high likelihood that, if they clash, they could get killed.

To see how the females behave towards Colin and Nkgonne at night,

Gordon is rigging the thermal camera.

Is there somebody out there?

There's something here.

Oh, it's a female.

Is this the cubs coming in...?

Oh, my God! Ohh! Oh, that's great!

Amazing! Look at them!

How many? One, two, three, four, five, six and the big fella.

Oh, and the older one, yeah.

That's great. That's beautiful.

The cubs are sticking close to their mums for safety...

..but the females are on edge.

Oh, that's not a very warm welcome.

No. Now, are these cubs going to approach?

They are actually walking this way.

They are.

Right, what's going to happen here?

Has anyone seen the cubs interacting with Colin and Nkgonne before?

I haven't.

It seems like they're trying to introduce them.

LOW GROWLING

SNARLING

Oh... Right...

Oh, that's not good. That is not good.

Maybe they're just kind of saying,

"The babies are here, you guys better behave."

"Be careful, be on your best behaviour." Yeah.

Where's he gone? Oh, he's sloped off.

Oh, he's... Yeah, he's a bit unsure.

Colin is just over here to my left.

He's keeping a low profile.

He's making, like, small vocalisations.

I've never actually witnessed this interaction,

this really sort of awkward stage.

So this is kind of typical now

of what will happen as they keep getting pushed to the periphery.

Colin is in a very submissive position - can you see him there?

Mm, yeah. Just like, head down, nonthreatening. Yeah.

"I'm not even aware of you being there."

As the females become more aggressive towards Colin

and Nkgonne, their time within this pride seems to be running out.

Right, I think we can leave them.

Night, boys.

VARIOUS ANIMALS CALL

While searching for Xudum, the female leopard...

Hello, boy. What a nice surprise.

..Brad has found a male in her territory.

I suspect that this is Mosweu.

Mosweu means "pale coloured".

And you can see from his pelt he's much lighter

than most of the males we see around the area.

No-one has seen him for months so...

..it's like he knows Xudum is in season

and he's come home to do the deed.

We know he's an aggressive guy.

He's quite aggressive around the females.

He's a fighter.

Mosweu the brute.

As the dominant male in the area,

Mosweu will kill any cubs he finds that are not his own.

There's something quite insane when a leopard is looking

straight at you from this angle.

I mean, it looks like he's looking into my soul almost.

There's not many leopards we have that are this relaxed.

So special being able to get that close to any big cat,

let alone leopards.

Especially male leopards -

they're normally quite timid compared to the females.

Hey, big boy.

That was really, really cool.

Mosweu is an ideal breeding partner for Xudum.

All he has to do now is find her.

We've just got a call on the radio of a dead elephant bull,

so we're just going to go and try and investigate this.

We have a visual.

Whoa. OK, he's a huge guy.

Huge guy, huge tusk.

The bull elephant died at least three days ago.

He's a male in good shape. It could have been a territorial fight here.

This will provide plenty food for our cats if they do find it.

It could easily feed the entire pride,

which could be good for them in these times of drought.

The carcass might also attract the intruder male lions.

Vianet and Anna are setting up

the thermal cameras to see what unfolds.

ANNA WHISPERS: There's a hyena.

HYENA WHOOPS Whew!

Definitely making its presence known.

This technology reveals some sights...

Oh...!

..that are better left in the dark.

That is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

There are now five hyena here,

so don't think there's any chance

that other predators are going to give it a go.

They are all sort of fanned out around the carcass.

It's like they're all acting as security,

making sure no-one gets through.

Hyenas' calls can travel up to 5km,

so they're just going to keep coming.

I think the only thing that's going to change the dynamics here

is if the Xudum pride turn up in force.

I can hear one of the hyenas vocalising.

They're facing the opposite direction

to the actual carcass. THEY BARK AND YELP

Something must be going on now.

HE GASPS

Two male lions!

Ooh, I think that might be...

Yeah, that's Colin and his brother Nkgonne.

This is so interesting. This is so exciting.

Hyenas calling.

WHOOPING AND LOW GROWLING

Whoa! Powerful.

One hyena is no match for Colin and Nkgonne,

but numbers can level the playing field.

Three hyenas, four... chasing them away.

I don't know where to focus.

It's going closer, God! What are you doing this for?

They stood their ground.

GROWLING

Oh, my God.

The big male chased them.

After claiming the carcass,

Colin and Nkgonne are joined by some of the pride females.

It's starting to get quite busy.

SNARLING

Nkgonne just went and...

..really sweetly rubbed his forehead on Colin.

Recently they've had

quite a lot of friction with the lionesses in the pride,

but it looks like they've done a really good job

at shifting these hyenas off the carcass.

So I think...they've clearly still got a place in the pride.

And they're both now just having a snooze together.

They really are the best of brothers.

At dawn, Gordon finds Colin and Nkgonne still at the carcass

and still with the females.

Everyone's in a very playful mood this morning.

See, this is an interesting situation...

..because although Colin and Nkgonne have got the clear message

that they're not wanted around the rest of the pride,

with this elephant carcass, it's brought all of these lions together.

It seems that the females have definitely shifted their attitude

towards these two boys.

They might be an inconvenience at times,

but in this scenario, it's good to have Colin and Nkgonne around.

If I was Colin and Nkgonne, I'd probably feel a little bit used.

It's like, "Yeah, we don't want you around.

"Actually, hang on...

"A couple of big boys like you, that's quite handy,

"so, yeah, stick around here."

The dominant pride males, Big Toe and Madumo,

haven't been seen for over a week.

Now Sets has found the intruder male lions on patrol.

Less than 100m away are Colin and Nkgonne,

and one pride female.

Incoming, two intruders.

Sets is with them and there could be an encounter with Colin and Nkgonne.

They seem to be up and moving towards where Gordon has

Colin and Nkgonne and the other female.

We might have a conflict because the intruder males don't belong here.

LIONESS CALLS OUT

So the female has started calling.

The lioness is contact calling,

trying to find the rest of the Xudum pride.

She is risking alerting the intruder males to her exact location.

They will hear that call, the call of a female.

And they may well come this way, not knowing that this female

is backed up by two males, Colin and Nkgonne.

LIONESS CALLS OUT

She's picked up the volume of that call.

LIONESS CALLS

They seem to be trotting.

Something seems to be brewing.

An interaction is imminent.

So if you can see my vehicle, I'm sitting with the female.

She's up on a termite mound,

and the males are coming straight towards her.

Colin and Nkgonne are behind me.

The intruder males are within 50m of the female,

and probably, like, 70m from Colin and Nkgonne.

The intruder's seen the female but he's ignoring her.

I think he's recognised that there's a bigger lion behind her.

Oh, my goodness me.

These intruders...

..are walking straight into trouble.

What on earth is going to happen?

Colin and Nkgonne are behind me.

Colin and Nkgonne might look imposing,

but they're only half the weight of an adult male lion.

Nkgonne's moving.

Right, this is going to come to something.

Two Xudum boys against two intruders.

OK, heads are up.

What's happening?

Are they pulling out, man?

Trouble is at your back.

What are you doing?

Colin and Nkgonne are moving out, they're pulling out.

The intruders are over here, they're moving in.

This is an aggressive approach,

and Colin and Nkgonne have bottled it!

One of the intruder males is chasing Colin and Nkgonne away.

This is a territory

that Colin and Nkgonne are not prepared to fight for.

At least, not with these two guys.

The intruders are chasing them out,

and they're going.

Off they go, off into the distance.

My word, who'd have thought it?

Just with the last of the light,

I'm seeing that this female is not giving the intruder a warm welcome.

I think Colin and Nkgonne, as soon as they got their eyes on these guys

and saw how big they were,

they weren't taking any chances.

In the morning,

Rea and Vianet are with the Xudum pride's mums and cubs.

They've been looking behind continuously.

We've had intruder males coming into the territory of our cats,

and if these intruders were to find these cubs,

they would kill all of them.

There is still no sign of Big Toe and Madumo,

and now Colin and Nkgonne have gone too.

I can only see one, two, three, four, cubs...

..and five, slightly hidden.

It's really strange, um, I can't see six.

But let's see what Rea might say.

I could only count five cubs.

How many did you count this morning?

I'm not so sure. I saw there's one suckling over there.

Yeah, I am seeing five.

It's not a very good sign.

There is a possibility this could be the work

of some of the intruder males we've been having.

I mean, the worst case is he could be dead.

I really want that not to be the reality here.

It would be a hard thing for them to lose one cub,

to lose one member of the pride.

Lion cub mortality is naturally high,

with eight out of ten lost in their first two years.

One of the biggest dangers is adult male lions from outside the pride.

RADIO: Vianet to the team.

This could be the worst news to break to everybody.

There's only five cubs that I can see.

I'm not sure...

..whether we lost one...

..but, um, it looks like it.

Over.

Yeah, roger that, Vianet.

Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that.

I think it's always wise to kind of just, if you can,

take a step back sort of emotionally from any wild animal,

but particularly when it comes to young cubs,

because bad things happen, that's why lionesses give birth

to so many because the majority of them actually don't make it.

But obviously, you spend days watching these animals

and watching them grow.

You can't not have hopes and aspirations for their futures,

as you would with any, you know, youngster.

So, yeah, it is sad.

But it does...it does happen.

Greg has found Xudum the leopard

further north than he's ever seen her before.

She's scent marking -

letting male leopards know she's ready to mate.

This is an interesting area that Xudum's in,

because she's right on the edge of her northern boundary.

Xudum is crossing into disputed territory.

Her main rival is a female called Bontsho.

Nearby, Greg finds Bontsho.

I can see her. She's resting on a branch of a tree.

She's much bigger than Xudum, which is interesting.

She's an impressive female, very impressive.

Bontsho's a powerful cat. One swipe, or one bite in the wrong place,

and Xudum could be injured to the point

where she wouldn't be able to sustain herself.

Leaving Bontsho, Greg finds Xudum again.

She's even further into the disputed territory.

She's on a little bit of a mission, doing a bit of a patrol.

What's really interesting is Bontsho's not far from us,

just in the tree line above here, so...it's a bit close.

What is Xudum doing? She's just stopped

and she's staring into a bush.

She's running now.

Why are you running? Why are you running?

Oh, no! Oh, my word!

Oh, it looks like Bontsho.

Xudum's off!

She's just jumped into a tree.

Argh!

Bontsho's following.

Xudum is so scared,

she's planted herself right up at the top of this tree,

and...Bontsho's holding... holding the middle.

I don't know, if Bontsho goes further up here,

Xudum's going to be in trouble.

She's coming down.

What?! They're close, they're close.

They're getting really close.

They've just jumped down!

Both of them. ENGINE STARTS

They're kind of doing a parallel run,

which is a classic leopard behaviour.

They're arching their shoulders and their neck

and trying to look big and intimidating,

and it's the step just before physical contact.

Xudum definitely wants to avoid getting into an altercation

with Bontsho, because Bontsho's so much bigger.

Bontsho is, like, frothing from the mouth.

She's pushing Xudum a little bit further down south.

Xudum's not hanging about.

Xudum is heading back towards her own territory,

and safety.

What a wild situation. That was intense.

Xudum is lucky not to have been hurt.

Her search for a mate continues.

After fleeing the intruder male lions...

Hello, boys!

..teenagers Colin and Nkgonne

have been found by lion scientist Robynne.

After the altercation, when we had a look at the GPS data,

we actually saw that Colin had beelined

straight to an area where they seem to be hanging out quite a lot.

He moved about 15km,

and that's usually an indication

that, you know, they've had an altercation with bigger males.

Moving away from the main pride suggests Colin and Nkgonne

are finally heading out on their own.

This is a really tricky time period, I think,

in Colin and Nkgonne's life. They're going to have to dodge

the adult males. That's going to be their biggest threat.

And obviously they're going to have to continue

to hunt on their own and build strength.

Life can be quite tough for a male,

especially if they end up on their own.

Their chances of success is much higher when they are together.

The annual flood is on its way at last.

Anna and Greg are driving north to check its progress.

Hey, Greg, I'm starting to notice huge numbers of game around.

Is that a sign that we might be close to the flood?

100%. It's quite extraordinary, isn't it?

There's so many more animals in this area.

We must be very close to the edge.

BIRDS CALL

I think I can also hear fish eagles, and fish eagles are a good sign

that we're near water, so, yeah, I think we're close.

Oh! OK, I don't think this is a mirage, this is actually water.

That is beautiful.

I never knew it would feel so good to see water.

At the driest time of year, this landscape is transformed.

Rainwater from mountains hundreds of miles away

is flowing down the Okavango River,

surging out across the dry land.

What starts as a trickle swells to a flood...

..creating one of the largest inland river deltas in the world.

I really, really hope this reaches camp,

because I'm elated to see the water, so I can't even imagine how

all of the big cats are going to feel

when they finally set eyes on that.

We made it. What a spectacle, eh?

It is absolutely stunning.

It's going to transform the whole place.

It's a river that just empties into the desert

at the driest time of the year. So it's, like, perfect timing.

It couldn't be better, really, for the life here.

It takes this water two months to fan out across the delta,

and it spreads out through 1,000km of channels.

Beneath us is literally just ancient Kalahari sand.

The flood brings new challenges for all of the big cats.

Xudum the leopard is going to have a big shift,

because the flood plains are now unavailable to leopards so

there will be a lot more competition for the remaining dry land areas.

Pobe the cheetah, how she's going to move will also change.

The lions I suspect won't have to adapt and shift as much.

Strange how it's beneficial for some cats

and complete disadvantage for others. Yeah.

That's going to be really fascinating to see that play out

in front of us.

Rea is also checking out the progress of the flood...

..and has found one of the Okavango Delta's most elusive big cats.

We've got a cheetah just over here. Not sure yet who, though.

It's Neelo, Pobe's daughter.

We've not seen her for over a year.

How cool is that?

She's actually back in the area that she grew up in.

Neelo is two years old, the only cub

of resident female cheetah Pobe.

Now mature, Neelo lives separately from her mother.

It's fantastic, she's still here, she's still alive, she's with us,

and she's come back home.

She's looking super keen, hey, and pretty motivated - it's nonstop,

she's just looking around, scoping out, seeing what's in the area.

A couple of impala in the distance.

I actually think she's going to go for it.

She's started, she's... They're just going right through the water there,

splashing all around.

Bit of a tussle.

GROWLING

I think she's going to get it down.

It's... Oh, man, you can just see how strong she is to do this.

She's got it down. She's got the impala down.

This is her kill.

Loads of vultures just incoming here.

It's crazy how fast that they react, that they've seen it

and they're coming up to the kill.

The vultures pose little threat.

The problem is who they alert.

There's a lion coming in there!

It's Colin, it's Colin, I can see the collar there.

It's Colin. He's coming.

There's another one there.

It's Colin and Nkgonne.

They're headed straight to Neelo.

Crossing through this channel.

Who cares about crocs? There's food the other side.

Without the pride to help them hunt,

Colin and Nkgonne need to take any opportunity to find food.

We're not sure where Neelo's gone.

I actually didn't even see her run off.

But I don't think she's going to stay close

knowing that these big lions are in the area.

They're having a little bit of a tussle there now...

..swinging the impala around.

They're social cats until food is involved,

then it's every man for himself.

Colin and Nkgonne's survival outside the pride isn't guaranteed...

..but sticking together gives them both a better chance.

Mating leopards overnight

is exactly the news Brad has been waiting for.

Trist, Brad.

I've got male and female tracks.

The trail leads into wild sage bush -

a perfect hiding place for mating leopards.

My hope is it's Xudum.

Neither of us have got a visual yet.

It's a really, really thick area. We don't want to push 'em too hard.

MUFFLED CALLS

That was them mating.

They are just moving slowly and slowly away from us.

It's right in the heart of Xudum's territory,

so I'm almost certain it is her.

If Brad is right, it's important that Xudum is mating with Mosweu,

the dominant male here.

The mating process has to happen repeatedly before she can conceive.

They'll mate hundreds of times,

normally every 30 minutes, every 45 minutes,

for several days at a time.

Before Brad can identify the leopards...

..three lionesses from the pride interrupt the mating pair.

What the hell?

They likely heard the leopards mating.

Chaos. Chaos, chaos, chaos.

And all I wanted to find was leopards mating.

It just shows you never know what to expect out here.

One of the lions targets a particular patch of wild sage...

She's pretty determined.

..right where Brad spots Xudum and her mate.

Er...

..Trist, Trist!

Our leopards are mating right on the edge of the sage,

um, and we've got a lioness going into it.

Yeah, copy. Coming!

Lions can be three times bigger than leopards.

Xudum could easily be killed in a fight.

Heard these leopards mating

and is now zoning in on them.

When it rains, it pours!

Things get even more complicated.

Trist, we are in three leopards here,

so we've got three leopards here.

There's another male leopard following these two that are mating.

It's Mosweu.

The male leopard's got his nose to the ground trying to pick up

the scent of the mating pair.

Xudum is with another male on Mosweu's turf.

But before he can do anything about it...

This lioness is just sneaking in on them.

She's going to chase him.

..Mosweu is driven off by the lioness,

while Xudum and her mate disappear.

Got a mating pair, Xudum and a male, finally,

we've got another male leopard coming in chasing those two...

..and a lioness comes in and chases the male

that's chasing the mating pair. I mean, it's just unbelievable.

Old Xudum doesn't do anything in half-measures.

I mean, talk about...talk about a complicated first romance.

Let's, um, keep an eye on trees, because Xudum,

that will be her default, I think.

There she is. There's Xudum, up a tree, as predicted.

Oh, what a morning!

With no sign of either male leopard,

the pairing is over.

This male wasn't that scared, eh?

I had a look at him, I got a shot of him.

It looked like Mosweu.

Me too. I also thought that.

She's got that "What just happened?" expression.

I think even she can't believe this.

Leopard pregnancies last just over three months,

so the team will have to wait to find out if Xudum will be a mum.

All I want is her to mate properly and have cubs.

But what a morning. One of the most insane mornings I've had in years.

The intruder male lions are back,

and right in the heart of the Xudum pride territory.

They're looking, they're looking.

They really look like baddies.

With dominant males Big Toe and Madumo still missing,

the intruders could be moving in to take over the pride.

I don't know what's caught their attention,

but I think they're going to be hyper-alert,

hyper-aware being inside this territory.

Something... They've seen something off to the north.

Um, Vianet.

I can see cubs.

The mothers with cubs.

Just spotted the lionesses with the cubs.

Guys, um, something's going to kick off here.

This is something I really don't want to witness.

We've got all of the Xudum cubs here.

This could be a complete disaster.

Seemingly, some of the cubs seem oblivious to the danger.

Can see them playing behind the females.

The future of this pride is in those tiny cubs.

In the mind of a male is, if you kill cubs,

it brings the mother into oestrous and you can mate with her.

It's a simple but brutal process,

and it's just part of lion behaviour.

They don't want to become friends with these females,

they want to get rid of any trace of Big Toe and Madumo.

But the pride females are not backing down.

You know what? One part of me is saying those four females,

they are not to mess about with.

They're not young females, they're very experienced,

very disciplined and very powerful.

OK, one of them is up on his feet.

He's got that kind of arrogant posture.

They were able to intimidate Colin and Nkgonne,

but I think it's going to be a very different story with these females.

They've got so much, too much to lose.

LOW GROWL

OK, he's moving in.

His coalition partner is over there.

Where the hell are Madumo and Big Toe?

She's baring her teeth.

Ah, I've never seen this before.

Baring her teeth, facing towards those guys.

I think they can see each other.

This is bloody intense!

Hell hath no fury like a lioness protecting her cubs.

In my time as a wildlife film-maker,

I've never witnessed this level of threat to cubs before.

Hours pass, and the standoff continues.

I'm going to switch to the night-time camera

just in case things kick off after dark.

We can see much clearer with this camera.

So we've got the two males in the foreground,

and I can see females and cubs

on the termite mound.

He's moving out.

This is encouraging.

The pride's mothers have kept the intruders at bay...

..for now.

This could be the best-case scenario,

is that these boys just move along.

Vianet, I think this guy's about to walk close to you.

God, he's showing me his teeth!

Just right behind my car.

Um... What do you mean? He's behind the car?

He's showing me his teeth. He's showing me his teeth.

Oh, BLEEP. Stand up, stand up. Guys, he's right by the car.

Yeah, stand up, stand up, stand up.

Shall we drive the car forward?

No, he's going, he's going.

BLEEP

IN FRENCH ACCENT: Vianet? Is your heart pumping?

It was too scary - he was baring his teeth.

VIANET LAUGHS

This is one of the top predators, you know, on the planet.

The females were just too big a challenge, too much risk for them.

But I have thought that maybe Big Toe and Madumo

are losing their grip.

I think this is a sort of clear sign

that if they don't get their house in order,

they're going to lose... they're going to lose their cubs.

The team lost the mothers and cubs during the night.

At first light, they're out in force, trying to track them down.

I'm south of boat station,

but I can't seem to find anything at the moment.

Rea and Sets have found signs

the intruder male lions are back yet again.

I have lion tracks.

With no trace of the females and cubs, concern is growing.

Rea, just to double check, have you found intruder tracks?

That is a confirm, Gordon.

Just west of the baobab.

Radio comms are quite broken,

but I think Madumo and Big Toe have been located.

After ten days away,

the dominant pride males, Big Toe and Madumo, are back.

They've shown up at a really important time because the threat

from intruding males is something that never goes away.

Right on cue, intruders are spotted nearby.

One of the intruders again.

It's all kicking off.

Madumo has just spotted one of the intruders,

and we could be in for a showdown.

Have you got visual of him?

Jeez, he's bombing!

He is bombing.

There are tracks on both sides of the road.

Now, in this instance, Madumo is going to chase the intruder

for quite a number of kilometres!

You know, this situation has been brought about by the fire,

by the flood, by the size of this pride,

by the size of the territory,

the number of lions that want to move in here.

It's got to that point that it's absolute chaos, it's a war zone.

Madumo is chasing one intruder north.

GROWLING

Big Toe is challenging the other.

That's Big Toe roaring like a...

LOUD ROAR ..like a king.

He's calling a hell of a lot.

It seems like he wants Madumo to come with him

to teach this young male a lesson.

But Madumo has got his own things to deal with.

That is powerful.

It's basically a message to the intruder,

"I will kill you."

Madumo is already two miles away and not giving up.

We've got this intruder just running past, and Madumo behind.

Is he going to pick up the pace? I think he is.

He's starting to run again.

Unless this intruder is completely insane...

..he'd better keep running.

Madumo chases the intruder almost eight miles,

before finally letting him go.

The intruder males,

they have realised that they are out of their depths here,

and they're not ready to do a pride takeover.

Keep going, pal.

Keep on walking.

They realise that the Xudum pride males

are not to be messed with at all.

He must be knackered.

That right there is the look of defeat.

Madumo is not managing to pick up the scent. He's headed back.

Dominant pride males Big Toe and Madumo have won this battle,

and protected their family.

As Gordon and the team follow them back...

..almost the whole pride comes to greet them.

Oh, wow.

How many individuals can you see?

15, maybe.

15! That's more than I have seen so far.

Yeah, what an incredible thing to see, eh?

All of these lions together in one spot for the first time in so long.

Madumo's just settled down into the grass.

I'm so chuffed now. I'm really chuffed.

I know for sure that the cubs are safe.

Let's just, yeah, enjoy this while we can.

GROWLS

As the annual flood draws thousands of Cape Buffalo into the area...

Uh-oh! These buffaloes are not happy.

..the Xudum pride lions face their biggest challenge yet.

Oh, my word, here comes the bull.

Get out of there!

They're in the water.

The cubs are panicking.

Oh, my gosh.

We could lose one of these lions.