Nature (1982–…): Season 37, Episode 3 - Super Cats: Science and Secrets - full transcript

♪♪

Big or small,

cats have conquered the planet.

But as adaptable as they are,

we're encroaching
on their space.

Around the world cat
numbers are decreasing.

If we get complacent we
could see tigers go extinct.

I couldn't imagine a
world without tigers.

♪♪

It's a critical time
for new research

and cat conservation.



Holy mackerel.

He's a loose cannon.

But there are success
stories to be told.

This is an age of discovery
that’s revolutionizing

how we view this
amazing, super family.

♪♪

Cheetahs are the
world's fastest land animal.

♪♪

It's said they can accelerate
faster than a Ferrari.

♪♪

But no one knows for sure
what they're really capable of.

♪♪

Professor Alan Wilson
has spent the last five years

trying to find out.



Cheetahs are amazing,

they're so much faster
than anything else.

We've got an animal
that has got four times

the acceleration of Usain Bolt

and more than
twice the top speed,

how can they not be
fascinating to study.

Alan wants to find the
cheetah's top speed

when it really counts...

during a hunt.

He's developed high tech collars
to record the cheetah's speed,

position, and G force
while they're hunting.

♪♪

The cheetahs soon disappear.

They cover hundreds of
miles in search of their prey.

That makes getting
any information back

from the collars
a real challenge.

Alan's solution?

He's built his own plane...

From scratch,

learned how to fly it,

and then filled it to the brim
with the latest technology.

We have a tracking
antenna on the wing.

We have a three-dimensional
laser scanner.

We have a video
camera on a gimbal.

That's a missile
guidance system.

Okay, let's go
find some cheetah.

♪♪

Coming into the air is
just such a revolution

for wildlife research.

♪♪

Okay, cheetahs
on the left wingtip.

♪♪

The cheetahs'
collars record details

of their movements
300 times a second.

As the plane flies over,

it locks on to each collar
and downloads the data.

There we go, we're
downloading collar 7-5-0.

Each of those files
represents one hunt.

After recording
more than 500 hunts,

Alan clocked a cheetah's
top speed of 58 miles an hour.

♪♪

Impressive.

But what surprised him was
that most hunts were much slower,

only half their
potential top speed.

It turns out, for a cheetah,

hunting is not all
about the sprint.

♪♪

So, what are they relying
on to catch their dinner?

♪♪

To investigate, Alan has
enlisted three volunteers...

And a rag on a string.

These hand-reared cheetahs
love chasing a moving lure...

Replicating how cheetahs
behave when hunting.

♪♪

Prey animals don't run
in a straight line for long.

To follow their prey,
cheetahs must also weave

and change direction.

This maneuvering
inevitably slows them down,

but it's also where
their real strength lies.

♪♪

The accelerations
and decelerations,

the G forces they're pulling
in the turns are very high.

The force going
through their legs

would be enough to
break a human leg bone.

♪♪

The lure's just taken the corner

and the cheetah's banking

and see how it's
using its tail here,

which is helping
control the roll of its body

and helping stabilize it
and it slowed down to turn

then it's accelerating again
out of shot towards the lure.

♪♪

Rather than speed,

the key to the cheetahs'
hunting success

is their agility.

♪♪

We started believing
that cheetahs

are the elite sprinter

and that was
their main attribute.

What we've seen is
that they're gymnasts,

they can accelerate,
they can maneuver,

they can turn, and that
is what they're good at,

almost the speed is a
by-product of all that athleticism.

So they are remarkable athletes,
but we shouldn't think of them

as just a speed merchant,
there's much more

to their repertoire than that.

♪♪

Even with the most familiar cats

there's still so
much to discover.

♪♪

Lions.

Supreme hunters.

The strongest cat.

Could they also be
the smartest big cat?

♪♪

Dr. Natalia Borrego
certainly thinks so,

and is on a
mission to prove it...

Though it's not the
easiest thing to test

in any cat, let alone a lion.

Her theory is based on the fact

that lions live
together in prides.

So cats are all solitary

and effectively live on
their own, except for lions,

they live in prides
and are very social

and when we think of
other social species...

Elephants, dolphins,
spotted hyenas,

chimpanzees... they're
all very intelligent.

So in theory lions should
be the smartest of the cats.

The idea that social
animals are more intelligent

is well established,

but has never been
proved for lions.

Cats are notoriously
uncooperative.

What possible IQ test
could you give a lion?

Natalia's traveled to
South Africa for the chance

to test a slightly
unusual pride.

♪♪

Kevin Richardson has an
unconventional approach

to working with lions.

♪♪

For 10 years he's
lived alongside

these rescued animals,

becoming part of the pride.

♪♪

Kevin can act as a
go-between to the lions,

giving Natalia a
unique opportunity

to run her experiments.

So, here looks good.

Natalia has designed a
puzzle for the cats to solve.

Mind your fingers. - Yeah.

The lion must work
out how to open a door,

then reach her head
inside to get to a reward.

Good.

There's nothing
like this in nature,

so to Ginny the lion,
it's a Rubik's cube.

And if the lions come,
you just pop it down.

I just pop it back down.

Ginny.

Here. Look here.

First, she must figure
out how to pull the door

with her paw.

♪♪

Clever!

Aw, you're so clever.

You are so clever my
sweetie, oh, but it slams, eh?

What did it do?

I think she's more interested
in the box now than the food.

Here. Here.

Next she needs to
learn to stand back

and allow the
door to swing open.

Get your head out the way.

Get your head out
the way. There we go.

Before, finally, she can
reach her head inside.

That's not bad.
- No that's good.

Clever. RICHARDSON:
One more time?

- Yeah.
- Two more times?

I think a couple more times.

Couple more times.

There, see, she got it.

It's taken Ginny 20
minutes to figure it out.

- But now she's cracked it.
- There we go.

Yeah, she's getting her
head out of the way now.

There we go. One more time.

- Okay, okay, cool.
- Yeah, there you go.

Easy now she's got it.

Well done.

That deserves a
round of applause.

Next comes the
crucial part of the test.

Kevin has brought the
lions into an enclosure

to allow pride mate, Libby,
to watch Ginny's efforts.

The ability to learn
by watching others

is considered a real
sign of intelligence.

It would put lions
in the company

of the brightest minds
in the natural world.

Good. Yeah you slam that door.

That's it, stay open. Good girl.

No there she goes.

She can see what
she's doing. Yeah.

Yeah, I think she's got it

and it's time to let Libby out.

If lions can learn
from each other,

Libby should solve
the puzzle in seconds.

If not... BORREGO:
See what she does

It's going to take her
another 20 minutes.

Now she goes to the right side.

There, I think, I don't
think you can get

any clearer than that,
that was amazing.

Yeah, here we go my
girl, here here, here here.

Good job, Libby.

It's the very first time
anyone has shown

that lions learn
from each other.

She knows that that's the one.

Natalia has tested
leopards and tigers...

Lions outperform them both.

It looks like
Natalia is right...

Now she doesn't even bother.

Lions are the smartest big cat.

So the experiments
went really well,

much better than expected,
and it really did show

that lions can learn
socially from each other.

♪♪

Their intelligence

and ability to learn
from each other

allows lions to hunt
like no other cat.

♪♪

No cat is easy to study,

though at least lions
are relatively easy to find.

♪♪

But most cats are so elusive...

secretive...

and well camouflaged...

that they're rarely
seen, let alone studied.

Learning more about
these cats takes people

whose dedication
knows no bounds.

♪♪

Someone like Dr. Andrew Hearn.

♪♪

Deep in the forests of Borneo,

a chance encounter set
him off on his life's mission.

I was part of an expedition team

to an uncharted area
of Indonesian Borneo.

One morning I went
along a trail just to go

and sit down and relax

and see what
wildlife I could see.

And I was sat there quietly,
and a small little red cat

walked out of the
side of the forest,

walked across the trail,

paused about 20
meters in front of me.

I grabbed my notebook,
started to sketch it,

but I had no idea what it was.

It was only when I returned
back to the camp later that day,

spoke to some of the
Indonesian staff and said,

"Do you know this...
Do you know this cat?"

So it was only then that I
learned that this was this, um,

the Borneo Bay cat, and
it quickly became apparent

that nothing was
known about this animal.

The bay cat is one of the
world's least known cats...

And Andrew has
devoted every year since

to finding out
anything about them.

But the chance of
him seeing another one

would be like winning
the lottery twice.

♪♪

So, how do you study
something you can't see?

Camera traps.

Combining a
sensitive motion sensor

with a high resolution camera,

Andrew and his team
deploy dozens of these

through the forest...

and spend months

trekking through the
jungle checking them.

♪♪

Back at base there are
thousands of hours of footage

to plow through.

Most contain no cats whatsoever.

But eventually,
Andrew struck gold.

♪♪

Almost.

So this is the first-ever
video of the bay cat

in the world.

It's not the finest video,
it's not the most exciting,

but to us that was
just spectacular.

We were absolutely blown away

when this thing appeared on
the camera traps in front of us.

This is the fruit
of 12 years' labor.

Yet to this day, only two
videos of wild bay cats exist:

Andrew's and this one,
more recently captured.

♪♪

No wonder we know
so little about these cats,

and now, it's a
race against time.

Borneo has one of the
highest rates of deforestation

in the world.

To protect some
space for the bay cat,

Andrew wants to find out
what kind of forest they need.

He has managed to
capture photographs

which help shed some light.

♪♪

In, what is it, 12 odd years

we've only got
something like 60 photos.

They're so rare,
they're so hard come by.

Each photograph of the bay
cat is worth its weight in gold.

It helps to piece
together the ecology

and the conservation
needs of these cats.

Much of the
deforestation in Borneo

is to make space for palm oil.

While some cats can
make it in these plantations,

bay cats disappear.

For the bay cat to survive,

some natural forest
must be protected.

Andrew's determined to uncover

whatever else he can
about the mysterious bay cat,

even if it takes
another 12 years.

♪♪

Camera traps are revolutionizing

our understanding
of the entire cat family.

Deploying them in the
remotest comers of the planet

for months at a time is
yielding unique insights

into these very private lives.

♪♪

In China, two cats that
wouldn't normally cross paths,

a leopard and a snow leopard,
are filmed by the same camera

just days apart.

♪♪

In Costa Rica, a margay
argues with an angry possum.

♪♪

And in the dunes of
the Western Sahara,

camera traps record
the first ever shots

of wild sand cat kittens.

♪♪

♪♪

One pioneering study has
taken the use of camera traps

to another level.

♪♪

Mountain lions, also
known as cougars or pumas.

♪♪

Camera traps are now
challenging what we know

about this American icon.

♪♪

She's here.

It all started with
Dr. Mark Elbroch's passion

for these charismatic cats.

Here she is, running across.

Look at the size
of the footprint.

I live mountain lions.

I track them, I watch videos
of them, I go to sleep at night

and I dream about
mountain lions.

This guy's a, he's
a loose cannon.

This is the part where
you try not to get bit.

In the Teton Mountains

of Wyoming, Mark and his team

want to learn more
about mountain lion

hunting and feeding behavior.

Using GPS collars
to track the animals,

they identify cat hotspots.

Quite a bit, which is good.

No, so we should get in
there and set some cameras

- Sounds good.

♪♪

Mark expected an insight

into the solitary
life of lone cats...

But the more he watched,

the more he began to realize
something else was going on.

♪♪

Here comes the nine
year old resident female,

and she comes round and she tums

and here comes a
six year old female.

She's doing mild hissing and
in the beginning we thought,

gosh, all that hissing,

it's the pre-runner to violence,

it's super aggressive.

No, hissing seems pretty normal

now that we've seen it over
and over and over again.

So what happened next?

They spent two days together
and this is what they did.

They shared a meal.

It blew me away.

That wasn't his only
surprising discovery.

♪♪

It's thought that males

are normally aggressive
towards females,

even capable of killing them.

But the cameras show
that's not true either.

Every time we've
seen a male approach

a female outside courtship

this is exactly what
they do, they slink in.

Notice how low he's holding
his body to the ground,

his ears are to the side
and almost sagging,

they minimize their profile,
they try to look smaller,

it is completely non-aggressive,

he clearly just wants
to share a meal.

And you can see as he
comes in there's no hissing,

there's nothing,
she just watches.

And it's the kitten that
does all the hissing.

There they are,

massive resident adult
male feeding on the carcass,

three month old
kitten and mother

falling asleep in
the background.

Rather than always
being aggressive,

males become positively meek
when they want to share a meal.

After analyzing 13 years of
data and thousands of videos,

Mark has discovered these
social interactions follow a pattern.

Mountain lions
remember each other,

and they're much more
likely to share their dinner

with a cat that has been
generous with them in the past.

We're beginning to
describe a species

that has some sort
of social system,

that is interacting
with a frequency

that challenges this idea
that they are solitary animals

and it's just opening our eyes

and completely turning
everything on its head

on what we thought were the
social lives of mountain lions.

Cats never fail to surprise us.

♪♪

Covering more
than 30 square miles

and employing 20,000 people...

Secunda CTL is the biggest
industrial complex in Africa.

♪♪

An unlikely place for a cat...

But ecologist Daan Loock
made an amazing discovery here.

It all started with reports of

strange creatures
prowling the site after dark.

♪♪

I just can't make
out what it is.

Hopefully it crosses
here but I don't think so,

there's a lot of thickets
just to our left hand side,

I think it will, there it
is just in front of us!

There it is!

Oh, that's very special.

The strange
creature is a serval.

There it goes.

I'm very excited, I must say.

Daan covered the
site in camera traps,

and to his surprise, there
were servals everywhere.

He worked out that
the population density

is six times higher than in
the most pristine wilderness.

Servals are not
merely surviving here...

This is the densest
population known.

Servals are found across Africa

and specialize in hunting
rodents and small birds.

♪♪

They have the
biggest ears of any cat,

to help pinpoint their prey.

♪♪

And with spring-like legs,
they pounce over ten feet.

♪♪

By fitting servals
with GPS radio collars,

Daan was able to answer
why there were so many on site.

Most importantly, Daan's
map reveals the servals

are concentrated
in particular areas...

Around water.

Ponds and streams used
to cool the heavy industry

create the perfect
habitat for rodents...

abundant food for the servals.

♪♪

With no other big predators,

there's no competition.

Servals have become
the apex predators...

and run riot.

Now, this site has the
highest concentration of servals

anywhere in the world.

All across the planet,

cats are adapting
to urban habitats.

♪♪

In response, people
often need to learn

how to live alongside cats.

♪♪

Mumbai, India.

One of the world's
largest cities,

home to over 20 million people.

♪♪

Mumbai is also
home to the world's

highest known
density of leopards.

In the dead of night,
they creep into the city

from the surrounding forests.

♪♪

Krishna Tiwari
grew up in Mumbai.

He's now dedicated his life

to studying the
city's urban leopards.

He saw a leopard the
day before yesterday

and when the leopard
saw him he just ran away

to the other side of the wall.

The story is the same
all across the city.

People encounter
leopards on a regular basis.

She came out at around 8:30

to wash clothes here and
when she put up a torch

she saw a leopard
sitting on the rocks

and as soon as, you know,

there was light on the
leopard he just got up,

and she was so afraid that
you know she came back

to the house and
called her husband.

The outcome of these encounters

isn't always so peaceful...

After all, the leopards are
coming into the city to hunt.

♪♪

Livestock are abundant
and unprotected.

♪♪

Stealth is the leopard's
most effective weapon.

♪♪

Dogs often provide
an early warning...

But drawing attention from
a leopard isn't a good idea.

Dogs are also on the menu.

♪♪

♪♪

And sadly, it
doesn't stop there.

♪♪

In the 23 years
from 1990 to 2013,

176 people were attacked
by leopards in Mumbai.

♪♪

But in just one
month during 2004,

10 people were killed.

♪♪

Something had to be done.

Krishna and the authorities
took a bold approach.

Pioneering an education program,
Krishna wanted to teach people

how to live safely
alongside leopards.

Simple measures like
staying in groups at night,

locking up livestock,

and not running from leopards

has made a huge difference.

20,000 people have
attended the meetings.

The awareness program
has been a great success

as the last four years have
seen no leopard attacks

and I think it's a good
and long-term solution

to reduce the human/leopard
conflicts in Mumbai.

♪♪

Unfortunately,
educating the local dogs

has proven trickier.

They provide a
vital early warning,

but are still being taken.

♪♪

Raj has lost 3 dogs
to leopard attacks.

He then hit on an idea

which might help
protect his current pet.

♪♪

He thinks that the dog,

the leopard will think
that it is also a leopard.

Even you know it's being
protected by other dogs

so I think it's a good idea.

The jury's still out on
whether this even works,

and anyway, what
self-respecting dog

wants to be dressed up as a cat?

♪♪

He's certainly not convinced.

Krishna's mission to
spread tolerance is working.

♪♪

And Mumbai's leopard
population is thriving.

It's a rare example of people
accepting their presence

and making space for cats.

♪♪

♪♪

Elsewhere, it's a
very different story.

Nearly half of all wild cats

are threatened with extinction.

As top predators they need
a lot of food and space...

And with an ever-growing
human population,

competition for
that space is rising.

In the last 20 years,
leopards have been wiped out

from 40% of their range.

♪♪

Cheetahs have become
extinct in 25 countries.

♪♪

Not even lions are spared.

Numbers have fallen by
nearly half in two decades.

The King of Beasts
could go extinct in the wild.

♪♪

The driving passion
people feel for cats

is now their greatest
hope for survival.

Holy mackerel.

♪♪

Especially for the animal

that's long been the
face of cat conservation.

♪♪

Dr. Krithi Karanth's
love of tigers

started at a very young age.

I first saw a tiger

when I was two years
old with my father

and my grandfather in
Nagarhole National Park.

I was amazed and in awe.

There is nothing like
seeing a tiger in the wild.

Years later,

and now a world-renowned
tiger conservationist,

Krithi remains enthralled.

♪♪

There are no words
that can really capture

the emotion of seeing a tiger.

Every single time I've
seen a tiger in the wild

I've been either left speechless
or giggling silly or crying,

I mean it's a range of
emotions, but you never forget.

To me, tigers are truly one

of the most spectacular
cats on the planet.

But like so many of the cats,

survival of the tiger
is on a knife edge.

We see images and stories

about tigers all the time,

could give us the impression
that they're not endangered

but they absolutely are.

They're one of the
most threatened big cats

in the world today.

Over the last century,

95% of wild tigers
have vanished.

There are now more
tigers in captivity

in the United States alone

than in all the wild.

♪♪

It is impossible for me

to imagine a world
without wild tigers.

But if we get complacent

we could see tigers go extinct.

♪♪

Sorry.

I... I couldn't,

I couldn't imagine a
world without tigers.

♪♪

Krithi has spent her
life raising awareness

and funding to save the tiger.

♪♪

She's set up a project that
helps villagers get compensation

when tigers attack
their livestock.

It's helping ease some of
the conflict with local people.

♪♪

Here in India, the greatest
challenge is giving tigers

the space they so
desperately need.

One solution is
to help villagers

who currently live within
the National Parks to relocate.

♪♪

Krithi is part of a
team that assists those

who choose to make a new
home beyond the park boundaries.

Once you move people out,

the vegetation comes back,
the prey numbers rebound,

and then tiger
numbers come back.

So, ecological
recovery takes time,

but I think nature
knows how to heal itself.

There's been a lot of time,

money, and effort spent...

And the tide may be turning.

After a long time

we're seeing wild
tigers come back,

population stabilize and
recover in many tiger reserves.

It shows that we can
change the future for cats

if there is the will
to protect them.

♪♪

One pioneering project is
even attempting to rescue a cat

from the very
edge of extinction.

♪♪

Just a century ago,
thousands of Iberian lynx

roamed the ancient woodlands
of Spain and Portugal.

♪♪

But a combination of
habitat loss, hunting,

and lack of prey caused
their numbers to collapse.

♪♪

By 2002, fewer than
a hundred were left.

The Iberian lynx was declared
the rarest cat on the planet.

Today, an international team
of scientists and conservationists

are working to bring these
cats back from the brink.

♪♪

The team has undertaken
an intensive breeding program

on a scale never
attempted before.

Vicky Ascensio is a vet
dedicated to the project.

She works at the newest
of the breeding centers.

Spread across
Spain and Portugal,

these multi-million
dollar facilities

are built to meet a
lynx's every need.

To ensure they can produce
as many cubs as possible

for release back into the wild.

♪♪

It's also designed so Vicky
can keep a close eye on each

and every precious cub.

In total we have 116 cameras.

We try to see the
animals 24 hours.

This hands-off approach is vital

so the cubs never meet a human.

They are all day
very quiet, very calm,

and they don't see that
we are always looking them.

It's very important for us
especially when we have cubs.

The Iberian lynx has
become a species

in intensive care.

♪♪

The breeding centers are
just one piece of the puzzle.

The team is also working hard
to improve the natural habitat

so young lynx can be
released into ideal conditions.

♪♪

Today Vicky is running
some crucial health checks.

One-year-old cubs Navio and
Noa are scheduled for release.

♪♪

We are checking that
all the animal is healthy

and also we take some
samples to see that he has not

any infections or diseases
or something like that.

Our goal always is
to release the animals.

It's our most important goal.

The cubs are ready.

A release is big
news around here.

Crowds gather to catch a
glimpse of this iconic Spanish cat.

♪♪

This is a very special
moment for me

because it's an animal
that was born in the center

and now you are
giving him the freedom.

It's very emotional for us.

♪♪

Navio and Noa are
given their freedom,

running wild for the first time.

♪♪

This ambitious
project has become

one of the most successful
reintroductions on the planet.

Nearly 500 cats once again
roam these ancient woodlands.

♪♪

The more we learn about cats,

the more they
surprise and amaze us.

♪♪

Only by understanding
their needs can we help

safeguard their future.

There's a lot of
work still to do,

but across the globe people
are putting heart and soul

into finding answers...

and making sure the
future always has a place

for cats...

Big and small.

♪♪

♪♪

To learn more about what you've
seen on this "Nature" program,

♪♪

♪♪