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Owen, Owen, can you see her?
Not, not yet, hold on.

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I've got her

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Being as close to a leopard as this

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is all in a day's work for these two filmmakers

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They've spent the last 14 years
trying to capture unique moments

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with 5 of Africa's greatest cats

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It's been an exceptional undertaking
with all sorts of hurdles to overcome

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Some of the cats had been written off
as impossible to film

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So what could Owen Newman
and Amanda Barrett achieve

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with such tricky but charismatic
creatures as these?

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Africa is a spectacular continent
with herds of wildebeest so big
that they defy description

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And for lovers of big cats, this
stunning landscape is unbeatable

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Here is the highest density and the greatest
variety of cats anywhere in the world

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14 years ago, at the start of Amanda's
and Owen's ambitious project

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they set out to document the life of a cheetah

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their base was Kenya's Masai Mara

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Until we started filming, we had no idea

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that the fastest animals on land
had so many problems

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They're sleek and streamlined, so
they're not as powerful as other animals

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That means scavengers make a beeline
for them when they've got a kill

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Jackals are irritating, but hyenas are far worse

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There's nothing a cheetah can do

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they daren't risk getting bitten
by jaws as powerful as these

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Cheetahs have another problem,
there's only a couple of thousand
left in the whole of east Africa

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and as more land is lost to agriculture
their population just keeps dropping

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The last thing we wanted to do was
to make life more difficult for them

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So, for instance, we didn't want to ruin
their hunts by disturbing the antelope

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But I have to try and get
the most exciting shots I can

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and that means filming the animals
running straight at the camera

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It's tricky because I've got to
leave the stalking cheetah

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and to so far away that all
I can see is the antelope

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When the cheetah suddenly hurtles into view

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I've got a split second to find it
in my lens and start filming

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Filming at normal speed showed
how fast the cheetahs were running

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but not much else

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How could film reveal more
about this wonderful animal?

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Owen decided to go big

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to shoot huge close-ups and slow motion

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the combination was fresh and exciting,
poetry in motion

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The footage also revealed the superb
running skills of both animals

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The gazelle's sharp pointed hooves
help it change direction in a heartbeat

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the cheetah can only keep up
by using its tail like a rudder

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It's also helped by having claws
that don't retract

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the only cat to wear permanently
spiked running shoes

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Owen didn't have many chances
to film such a spectacular hunt

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Gazelles outmaneuver cheetahs
more often then not

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so when the cheetahs were on top form,
he had to make the most of it

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Hunts, however, were not the
only dramatic cheetah behavior
that the two of them filmed

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This is how some males set about
wooing a female and it helps
if they go around in pairs

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It looks tough, but aggression is
often part of normal cheetah courtship

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These males are holding a female hostage

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and if they're the right ones and all
goes well, she just might conceive

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And that's it for the males.

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Afterwards, the cubs are the
responsibility of the female alone

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We've filmed cheetah families often
enough to see that it's a long hard job

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The cubs need something like 18 to 20
months of practice before they're even
ready to try and look after themselves

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I've probably filmed 20 different
cheetahs over the years

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and as long-distance runners, 2 or 3
stand head and shoulders above the rest

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Even if you had all the time in the world,
the chance to film something like this
happens only once in a lifetime

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Now imagine trying to film something like this

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but with a cat that's far harder to find,
and at night

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That's the challenge with filming leopards

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Amanda and Owen travel to one of the
premier places in Africa to find them

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Zambia's south Luangwa National Park

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When they finally spotted their first leopard,
it wasn't doing much at all

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However, as the sun started to sink,
the cat set off to hunt

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This is what they'd come here to film, and it
was something that had never been done before

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The problem had always been that
conventional cameras needed lots of light

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and these dazzle antelope

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Mesmerized like this,
they're sitting targets and that
gives leopards an unfair advantage

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Owen and Amanda wanted
to film natural behavior

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they had a trick up their sleeve,
a brand-new video camera

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that was so sensitive, it could
record in little more than moonlight

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and almost at once they started to film
behavior that had never been seen before

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Like us, baboons can't see well at night

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so they go to bed in the tallest trees

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But even up there, they aren't safe

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Leopards were one of the main predators
of our ancestors 5 million years ago

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And as we filmed this scene,
we could see why

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For baboons, like early humans,
there's just nowhere to hide

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The cats rely on that first element of surprise

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and this one had blown it

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It wasn't long before Owen and Amanda realized

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that their new camera still left a lot to be desired

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They needed to be able to
film leopards in the pitch dark

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and to do this, they had to come up
with a completely different system

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They combined the latest security
camera with infra-red lights

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that were invisible to everything but
the camera and night-vision goggles

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One leopards couldn't wait
to get into the film

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he was so relaxed with new equipment
that he even jumped onto the car

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So we set off with high hopes to boldly
go where no film crew had gone before

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Using infra-red light is weird and wonderful

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We have to keep reminding ourselves none
of the animals can see as much as us

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instead they rely on their ears

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The tiniest sound sings out at night

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so the antelope settle in the
longest and driest of grasses

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and they're listening out for the slightest rustle

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Leopards really have their work cut out,
trying to silently creep up on them

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Straight away, the new technology was
helping them capture startling images

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The leopards were stalking right out in the open

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relying on the darkness
to mask their movements

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This is one of the most memorable moments
I've ever seen captured on camera

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I was amazed at how close leopards
have to get to their prey

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before they could even try to pounce

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I remember filming one female that
took two hours to stalk just 10m

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And then suddenly it was all over

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The antelope only needed to catch
the faintest whiff of her scent

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but even though they knew she was there,
it's obvious that they still couldn't see her

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And just when Owen and Amanda thought they
were starting to really understand leopards

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one of their favorites, Kumi,
proved them wrong

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Her behavior showed that leopards
really do deserve their reputation

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for being the smartest and most
adaptable of all the big cats

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It all begun one night

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when Kumi came across a tempting
but tricky proposition

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The herd of antelope was bigger than normal

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and with so many ears on red alert, there was
no way she could try and creep up on them

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Instead of keeping quiet,
she stamped her paw, deliberately

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The antelope were shocked,
the group splintered and broke up

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She ran around madly, trying to
take advantage of all this confusion

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Without the new technology, dedication
and a streak of stubborn determination

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Amanda and Owen would never have
been able to unlock the secrets of
the leopard's very special world

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But the next cat, the serval,
tested this determination even more

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No one else had ever tried to film them

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Owen was only given a month
to prove it could be done

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and he headed back to Tanzania

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Servals are more active during the day
than leopards, but they're shy

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and small enough to disappear
in long grass in the blink of an eye

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The first 3 weeks were a disaster

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I only caught glimpses of really timid servals

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I traveled miles and kept on searching,
but it all seemed hopeless

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With only 3 days left, Owen decided
to head for the Ngorongoro Crater

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And it was here, almost straight away,
that his luck turned

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This is my very first shot of a serval

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I was really pleased to find one after all this time

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especially one that was so relaxed

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Within 2 days, he was coming right up to me

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I don't know why he was more confident
than the others, but it was lucky for me

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He was busy hunting rodents
but wasn't having much success

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After all these efforts, I thought
he really deserved his meal of rat

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Servals generally catch rodents and birds

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but once or twice, people had seen them
pouncing on gazelle fawns

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The gazelle was old and wise enough
not to take any chances

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And she still wasn't satisfied

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I don't know who was more shocked,
me or the serval

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but I was really pleased that he seemed okay

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Thanks to this serval's efforts
in front of the camera

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the film was given the go-ahead

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But when Owen arrived back in the
Ngorongoro Crater to continue

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the young serval was nowhere to be found

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This time, to Owen's sheer amazement,
he found another serval after two days

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It was an adult female, and as luck would
have it, she was also very approachable

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She was full of confidence and
had bags of personality

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I soon found out that nothing fazed her

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certainly not side-striped jackals

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And even better, she'd got a family

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The kittens were only about a month old
and still quite small

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Their size meant that the family's
movements would be relatively restricted

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And with a cat that's notoriously hard
to find that was just what I wanted

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Film started rolling through the camera

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far better footage than he'd ever
imagined possible at the beginning

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Ten days later, strangers
appeared out of the blue

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They're Abdim's storks that
migrate up and down Africa

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on the hunt for beetles and other insects

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To the serval, they must have seemed
like manna from heaven

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She went straight after them
leaving the kittens on their own

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I didn't think she stood a chance.
There was just so much
open ground between them

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I'd never seen anything like this before,
it was incredible

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In a distance, Owen had noticed that
the kittens weren't alone any more

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It was turning out to be a busy day

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The kittens were fully engrossed
in catching insects

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Were they blind?
or were they growing up to be
as bold as their mother?

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I'd never seen an elephant chase a kitten before

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My filming day wasn't over yet, the female
serval was still stalking those storks

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'Struth! I thought cheetahs moved fast,
but she was like quicksilver

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And then just as I thought that was enough
excitement for the day, something completely
unexpected turned up, another serval

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I think it was probably an adolescent
from a previous litter

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Suddenly, servals were everywhere

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The older female wasn¡¯t going to
give up her kill without a fight

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The youngster didn't stand a chance

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Despite the odds against him,

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Owen had been able to spend
enough time with servals

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to film as much fascinating behavior
as he had with their bigger relatives

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But could they now take this even further
and document the secret life of another small cat

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that was even less well-known,

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the caracal.

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Amanda and Owen had only
seen one once in ten years

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They're only active at night

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so it was back to chasing their tails
in the dark once again

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some said they were mad even to try

190
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Their previous experience with leopards and
servals, however, had given them confidence

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only time would tell if it was misplaced

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Maybe we had been overconfident

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we knew the technology worked

194
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but after two months, we still
hadn't even glimpsed a caracal

195
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We searched hundreds of acres of bush,
and it was tough

196
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Searching for a caracal was worse than
that proverbial needle in a haystack

197
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And then suddenly when we'd practically
given up hope, there, right in front
of us, was the cat of our dreams

198
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Luckily for them, the individual they
found was exceptionally confident

199
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Owen and Amanda were soon busy filming

200
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And that night, the caracal's attention
was focused on springhares

201
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They're nocturnal little creatures, only
emerging from their burrows well after dark

202
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so, unlike the baboons or us,
their night vision is excellent

203
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In order to remain undetected by them,
the caracal had to use the lie
of the land to keep hidden

204
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It was another of those extraordinary scenes

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As the minutes passed,
I was getting more and more tense

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my worry was that if she suddenly ran

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I wouldn't be able to keep her in the frame

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When she did run, it was just so fast,
it's pitch dark out there

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so if I lost her with the camera, I wouldn't
have been able to find her again in time

210
00:27:20,116 --> 00:27:25,471
It's probably one of the hardest and
luckiest bits of footage I've ever taken

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We'd had one stroke of luck already

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and here was another, she's
got 3 young kittens as well

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After a night or two of filming them,
the family ignored us completely

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In the end, I think our success
or failure is all down to luck

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00:28:08,581 --> 00:28:14,881
And it helps having enough time to
strike lucky. Because however
experienced or skilled you might be

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you've got to find the right individual,
the superstar of the animal world

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This family was perfect

218
00:28:23,084 --> 00:28:27,460
they were so approachable and the
kittens spent a lot of time playing

219
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:32,393
we were able to film much more than we'd
ever been able to with the serval family

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These were the most enthusiastic
jumpers of all the cats

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00:28:37,826 --> 00:28:41,958
but we still had no idea of just
how athletic caracals could be

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We were about to have a big surprise

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The catalyst was a white stork
roosting in the middle of a pond

224
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It couldn't see her

225
00:28:59,452 --> 00:29:02,665
and it panicked at the sound of her footfalls

226
00:29:06,388 --> 00:29:10,198
The cat heard it land about 300 yards away

227
00:29:10,729 --> 00:29:12,916
and she went straight there

228
00:29:24,562 --> 00:29:26,105
She had to get closer,

229
00:29:26,205 --> 00:29:31,999
and like a leopard stalking antelope
she had to be really, really quiet

230
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The leap must have been 10 feet high

231
00:29:56,733 --> 00:30:00,768
she'd even overtaken servals
in the jumping stakes

232
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What an amazing little cat!

233
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None of us had any time to relax

234
00:30:32,594 --> 00:30:36,041
all too soon, we could hear
the sound of something coming

235
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It was too far away to see what it was,
but it sounded alarmingly big

236
00:30:41,615 --> 00:30:44,679
and the kittens weren't taking any chances

237
00:30:55,191 --> 00:31:00,756
We didn't know what was happening
We couldn't see the stork or kittens anymore

238
00:31:05,833 --> 00:31:09,053
It was the worst thing: hyenas

239
00:31:11,429 --> 00:31:14,242
Cheetahs, leopards and even lionesses

240
00:31:14,342 --> 00:31:20,398
far bigger cats than caracals, run from
an intimidating group of hyenas like this

241
00:31:25,458 --> 00:31:29,328
But the caracal had no choice
but to try and stand her ground

242
00:31:29,428 --> 00:31:32,012
the lives of the kittens depended on her

243
00:31:46,189 --> 00:31:52,322
The skirmish went on for a very tense 20
minutes, and all that time we felt helpless

244
00:31:52,957 --> 00:31:57,003
The hyenas could find the kittens and
there'd be nothing that we could do

245
00:32:04,129 --> 00:32:06,581
Then, the hyenas found the stork

246
00:32:10,817 --> 00:32:15,015
A meal like this would have lasted
the caracal family two days

247
00:32:15,115 --> 00:32:19,317
The hyenas tore it to bits and
ate it in just two minutes

248
00:32:19,417 --> 00:32:22,754
but then for some reason they just shot off

249
00:32:22,854 --> 00:32:25,859
they probably never realized
the kittens were there

250
00:32:37,395 --> 00:32:41,081
It was such a relief to
see them all together again

251
00:32:53,676 --> 00:32:55,687
We followed mother anxiously

252
00:32:55,787 --> 00:33:00,019
as she moved the kittens over a mile away
from the hyenas to safety

253
00:33:01,238 --> 00:33:04,712
It turned out to be the last time
we saw the family

254
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:13,219
The kittens were growing up fast and ranging
further afield, and they just slipped out
of our lives as quickly as they'd come in

255
00:33:28,162 --> 00:33:33,789
Trying to film an animal for the first time is
a very exciting challenge for any filmmaker

256
00:33:33,889 --> 00:33:39,499
But how do you get sensational footage of an
animal that everyone thinks they already know?

257
00:33:48,787 --> 00:33:51,621
This was the problem Owen and Amanda faced

258
00:33:51,721 --> 00:33:58,345
when they turned their attention
to lions, the cat that,
for many people is synonymous with Africa

259
00:34:09,711 --> 00:34:12,824
Drama such as this was exciting to film

260
00:34:12,924 --> 00:34:14,679
but their interest lay in revealing

261
00:34:14,779 --> 00:34:19,081
that there was much more to lions
than just being red in tooth and claw

262
00:34:30,203 --> 00:34:35,532
They wanted to show the complex family
ties that bind a pride together

263
00:34:35,632 --> 00:34:40,044
For this, they had to get right inside a pride

264
00:34:40,915 --> 00:34:46,860
They decided to focus on the Tokitok
pride in the Ngorongoro Crater

265
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:50,559
The Serengeti lion project
had kept records on every lion there

266
00:34:50,659 --> 00:34:53,848
so all the territories
and relationships were known

267
00:34:54,567 --> 00:35:01,782
The Tokitok females had handed the territory
down from mother to daughter for 3 generations

268
00:35:02,251 --> 00:35:04,782
But the two males were newcomers

269
00:35:04,882 --> 00:35:10,501
having fought and overthrown the previous
male coalition a mere 10 months before

270
00:35:13,761 --> 00:35:18,106
When we started filming the pride,
we noticed something strange going on

271
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this female wasn't accepted
by the other three

272
00:35:21,554 --> 00:35:25,360
She hung around ghostlike
on the edge of the Tokitok range

273
00:35:31,077 --> 00:35:35,797
The success of the pride rested on
the shoulders of just three lionesses

274
00:35:35,897 --> 00:35:38,918
that's not really enough
to secure a pride's future

275
00:35:39,018 --> 00:35:42,000
they needed to raise more female cubs

276
00:35:46,513 --> 00:35:51,585
The park authorities weren't able to give
Owen and Amanda permission to film at night

277
00:35:51,685 --> 00:35:54,869
that's the time when lions
are usually most active

278
00:35:54,969 --> 00:36:00,599
and this handicap made them feel a little more
nervous than usual at the start of the film

279
00:36:18,106 --> 00:36:20,751
The Tokitok pride did us
proud from the beginning

280
00:36:20,851 --> 00:36:26,421
and as we filmed their hunts, we were able
to show the subtleties of their personalities

281
00:36:30,829 --> 00:36:34,394
Big animals like buffalo
needed them working as a team

282
00:36:46,618 --> 00:36:49,367
The oldest female usually took the lead

283
00:36:58,566 --> 00:37:01,969
We filmed her risking life and limb many times

284
00:37:27,391 --> 00:37:30,576
The youngest lioness was still very nervous

285
00:37:36,268 --> 00:37:42,525
The combined weight of all of them
was needed to bring down this,
the largest of their prey

286
00:37:46,964 --> 00:37:49,000
Hunting buffalo was dangerous

287
00:37:49,100 --> 00:37:53,037
but an even greater problem
lay just on the doorstep

288
00:37:56,963 --> 00:37:59,082
It was the Munge pride

289
00:38:13,247 --> 00:38:18,730
The more we filmed the Tokitoks, the more
we realized that a pride is like a dynasty

290
00:38:18,830 --> 00:38:22,210
its power rises and falls over many years

291
00:38:23,873 --> 00:38:27,441
Our hope was that this pride
was on the way up

292
00:38:30,084 --> 00:38:33,112
Where did the outcast lioness fit in?

293
00:38:33,212 --> 00:38:35,796
the youngest lioness didn't like her at all

294
00:39:08,572 --> 00:39:13,135
Maybe all this aggression was because
the outcast had got a shady past

295
00:39:14,298 --> 00:39:16,062
only time will tell

296
00:39:45,527 --> 00:39:49,861
Now that Owen and Amanda had worked
with this pride for 4 months

297
00:39:49,961 --> 00:39:52,783
the Tokitoks had become part of their lives

298
00:39:52,883 --> 00:39:56,086
and maybe it was easier to empathize with them

299
00:39:56,186 --> 00:40:02,185
because unlike all the other cats, lion society
is all about family relationships

300
00:40:06,127 --> 00:40:08,520
We were filming a lion soap opera

301
00:40:08,620 --> 00:40:14,000
but not having a script, we had no idea
of what was going to happen next

302
00:40:14,887 --> 00:40:17,313
One evening when we had stopped filming

303
00:40:17,413 --> 00:40:19,449
we noticed the outcast was close by

304
00:40:19,549 --> 00:40:23,207
watching the cubs with a peculiar intensity

305
00:40:23,782 --> 00:40:28,864
It looked as though the females were
about to leave their cubs and go hunting

306
00:40:34,272 --> 00:40:36,615
We never saw the cubs again

307
00:40:43,009 --> 00:40:47,672
The next morning, we filmed the
Tokitok mothers calling for them

308
00:40:51,984 --> 00:40:56,582
As the hours passed, we began to
suspect that the cubs were dead

309
00:40:56,682 --> 00:41:01,799
The outcast was the only possible culprit,
and as though to confirm our suspicions

310
00:41:01,899 --> 00:41:05,413
there was no sign of her
for the first time in days

311
00:41:07,836 --> 00:41:11,274
No one had ever recorded such behavior before

312
00:41:11,374 --> 00:41:15,731
but it would certainly explain why
the youngest female was so hostile

313
00:41:15,831 --> 00:41:19,000
maybe the outcast had once tried to kill her

314
00:41:23,586 --> 00:41:27,900
For the Tokitoks,
things were about to get much worse

315
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:31,459
A week later they found one
of the males badly wounded

316
00:41:31,559 --> 00:41:36,000
with the four lions from
the next door pride hot on his heels

317
00:41:38,757 --> 00:41:41,864
Although the two Tokitoks
had been heavily outnumbered

318
00:41:41,964 --> 00:41:46,654
it was obvious from the look of the others
that the pair had put up a brave fight

319
00:41:46,754 --> 00:41:50,393
It was gang warfare - lion style

320
00:41:59,292 --> 00:42:01,963
His brother had probably been killed

321
00:42:02,063 --> 00:42:05,911
For the first time in his life,
this male was on his own

322
00:42:06,011 --> 00:42:08,420
and his injuries were fatal

323
00:42:15,074 --> 00:42:19,404
We found it heartbreaking
to film our pride falling apart

324
00:42:24,576 --> 00:42:30,129
The 3 lionesses were in trouble, but even so,
they continued to hunt together

325
00:42:30,229 --> 00:42:34,879
and once again, their characters came
to the fore in the most spectacular way

326
00:42:39,418 --> 00:42:42,124
The youngest lioness was doing her best

327
00:42:42,224 --> 00:42:44,927
she was more confident with zebras and buffalo

328
00:44:00,204 --> 00:44:02,632
All 3 were hot on the zebra¡¯s heels

329
00:44:02,732 --> 00:44:07,124
but it was again the oldest lioness
that was the most determined

330
00:44:43,848 --> 00:44:48,077
I had never been so close
to such dramatic action

331
00:44:48,177 --> 00:44:51,819
the zebra was caught just
a few yards away from me

332
00:44:54,878 --> 00:45:01,316
Now that the cubs and males had been
killed, we knew that the future
for the Tokitok pride was bleak

333
00:45:03,098 --> 00:45:08,337
A few days later, we found the oldest
female still searching for her cubs

334
00:45:08,437 --> 00:45:11,457
It was 3 weeks after they'd been killed

335
00:45:15,546 --> 00:45:18,664
This sense of loss was as close to grief

336
00:45:18,746 --> 00:45:21,302
as anything we'd ever seen in the cat world

337
00:45:24,867 --> 00:45:27,215
We watched her with sinking hearts

338
00:45:27,315 --> 00:45:32,096
we knew she was 16, too old
to be able to conceive again

339
00:45:40,646 --> 00:45:47,420
One day soon afterwards,
the two of them saw hyenas looking
at something hidden in the grass

340
00:45:50,828 --> 00:45:55,582
The Tokitok pride had lost their best
and oldest hunter

341
00:46:03,401 --> 00:46:09,434
Now the pride was down to two and this
meant catching food was extra risky

342
00:46:09,534 --> 00:46:15,382
And if you're a lion, the unwritten rules
say that you don't hunt buffalo alone

343
00:46:15,482 --> 00:46:19,811
Owen's footage shows why in the
most powerful way I can imagine

344
00:47:04,819 --> 00:47:10,143
The 20-year-old Tokitok dynasty was
coming to an end in front of our eyes

345
00:47:10,683 --> 00:47:14,301
The last two lionesses were
living on borrowed time

346
00:47:15,794 --> 00:47:22,552
There was no way they'd be able to
stand up to the far stronger Munge pride
that was waiting in the wings

347
00:47:32,828 --> 00:47:35,812
Their neighbors were eager
to expand their territory

348
00:47:35,912 --> 00:47:40,214
and raise their cubs in the lands where
the Tokitok pride had once flourished

349
00:47:42,991 --> 00:47:49,784
It was tough watching the new pride taking over
from the lions we'd grown to know, and love

350
00:47:53,468 --> 00:47:58,260
Such a strong emotional pull
had been entirely unexpected

351
00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:04,061
but if Owen and Amanda hadn't got
to know the Tokitok lions as individuals

352
00:48:04,161 --> 00:48:07,344
they would never have been able
to explore the real-life drama

353
00:48:07,444 --> 00:48:10,770
in a film that captured the imagination of millions

354
00:48:12,288 --> 00:48:15,233
As a result of this film and the others

355
00:48:15,333 --> 00:48:20,958
people all across the world have been
able to appreciate cats as never before

356
00:48:21,616 --> 00:48:25,534
For filmmakers who care deeply
about such magnificent animals

357
00:48:25,634 --> 00:48:30,010
pictures like these are worth 1000 words

358
00:48:31,511 --> 00:48:42,011
www.mvgroup.org