Wild Cats of India (2020): Season 1, Episode 2 - Masters of Disguise - full transcript
NARRATOR: Wild cats.
They are marvels of evolution,
with lightning fast reflexes,
detonating muscle power,
and extraordinary senses.
All part of the package
of being a super predator.
In India, wild cats occupy
every landscape from the
snow-capped peaks of the
Himalaya to the dense jungles
of the Western Ghats.
India's big cats have kept
up with a rapidly changing
landscape and live alongside
a growing human population,
sometimes in harmony and
sometimes in conflict.
(man screaming)
But what does their future hold?
(theme music plays).
The Himalaya, a land
of eternal snow.
A landscape so unapproachable
that humans left it alone
as the home of the gods.
These high mountains created
by impact and shaped by the
forces of sun, wind, and
water are one of the least
populated places on Earth.
But even here in this
barren landscape of boulders
and ice, life exists.
The top cat in this desolate
landscape is the snow leopard.
Large fur-lined paws
act as snow-shoes,
and a thick furry tail, nearly
the same length as its body,
not only provides balance, but
also acts like a warm scarf.
Its compact body, small ears,
and a double layer of thick
fur, help minimize heat loss.
Large nasal cavities
and well-developed lungs
compensate for the thin air.
All this, combined
with a special gene,
allow these supercats to rule over
their vast mountain landscape.
But in winter, when the
temperature plummets far below
zero and deep snow
makes passage difficult,
snow leopards need to move
to parts of the mountain
with less snow.
Their main prey in this
area, the urial and the ibex,
have already moved.
With food so scarce there's
demand for every morsel.
He's not watching the urial,
he's plotting an easier meal.
Perched at 13,000 feet, at the
edge of the snow line is the
little village of Ulley,
a few houses, a dozen people,
some sheep, and yak-cow
hybrids called dzo.
(speaking native language)
NARRATOR: They live as they
have for several centuries.
(speaking native language)
NARRATOR: They know their
feline neighbor well.
In the local language,
Ladakhi, they call it "shan."
Grey as the mountains,
elusive as a ghost,
the shan watches his neighbors
from a hilltop vantage point.
As night falls on
Ulley, he descends.
Waiting until the
village sleeps.
Then under the cover of
darkness, makes his kill.
A young dzo is his prize.
But at nearly twice its weight
the snow leopard can't carry
it very far.
He eats what he can and
returns to his rocky abode.
In these open mountains, it's
impossible to hide a kill.
The commotion attracts
the attention of another
super-predator, the wolf.
The grey wolf in the Himalaya
weighs about the same as an
adult snow leopard.
But wolves rarely travel alone.
The pair could overpower
the solitary cat.
The snow leopard stands down
and can only watch as the
wolves eat their fill.
No sooner have they left,
a red fox begins to devour
what he can.
With food so scarce, he can't
afford to miss any opportunity.
But it's hard to
eat a meal in peace,
when you could be
a meal yourself!
It's time for the shan to
reclaim his kill from the
canine scavengers.
But more scavengers
wait in the wings.
Magpies.
The snow leopard has
already lost enough.
He's in no mood for sharing.
The pesky magpies don't
give him a moment's peace.
Eventually the shan gets fed.
The best meat now eaten,
the shan abandons the kill
and leaves the cleanup crew
to squabble over the remains.
A majority of India's snow
leopards live with humans and
livestock outside
protected areas.
With an estimated worldwide
population as low as 4,000,
it's hard to know what the
future holds for snow leopards.
They've adapted to thrive in
the cool high mountains of
central Asia and the Himalaya.
But this may no longer be
the abode of eternal snow.
Rising temperatures
threaten the habitat.
For now, the grey
ghost of the mountains,
is still the top cat living
precariously on the roof
of the world.
Beneath the mountain peaks,
and adapting to a changing
India, roams another
big cat: the leopard.
NARRATOR: Able to carve out a
niche from cities and suburbs
to jungles, and yet
stay nearly invisible,
the leopard has the greatest range
of all the eight species of big cats,
and is found across
much of Africa and Asia.
One place they are seen more
frequently than any other is
in the dry rocky boulders
of southwestern Rajasthan.
Here the Great Indian
Desert meets the Aravallis,
one of the oldest mountain
ranges in the world.
These granite hills, riddled
with channels and fissures
provide refuge to
numerous animals.
And form the perfect den
for these leopard cubs.
Born blind and helpless, the
cubs must wait for about a
week to get their first
look at the world.
Every few days their
mother moves them;
their build-up of scent in the den
could attract unwanted attention.
But getting them on board is
literally like herding cats.
This palace of boulders
is ruled by Cut Ear,
named after a battle scar,
he earned while clawing his
way to power.
He is the father of the cubs
and the undisputed king,
but at over ten years
old his power is waning.
And other males wait for
any sign of weakness,
so they can pounce into power.
They watch his every move.
As do the peafowl.
And the Rabari.
These nomadic people have
lived here with their
livestock for generations,
under a curse.
Legend has it that a saint
once lived here in the hills.
When a Rabari's goat
disturbed his meditation,
the holy man cursed the land.
Leopards would stalk
the Rabari forever.
The Rabari accept their loss
as an offering to the gods
of these hills.
This male, now in his prime,
has trespassed into Cut Ear's
territory and makes
himself at home.
On the other side of the hill,
Cut Ear is busy marking his
domain, unaware of the intruder.
For cats, spraying urine is
like posting on social media.
It lets leopards know about
each other and advertises
females ready to mate.
To assert his dominance, the new male
will want to kill Cut Ear's cubs,
securing a chance to mate
with their mother and
further his own bloodline.
But not on her watch.
This mother will do anything
to protect her cubs.
She's tough, and like
all mother leopards,
she can make it on her own.
But Cut Ear has his own
business with the young male.
They meet head on.
Leopard turf wars can
be fights to the death.
There's tension in the air.
Can Cut Ear defend
his turf against the
more aggressive male?
NARRATOR: Years of experience
defending his turf has taught
Cut Ear to study his
challenger's every move.
The lord of the leopards is
only as good as his last fight.
For now, Cut Ear has
defended his domain and
will continue to rule.
The young male slinks off to
make his own territory elsewhere.
For a highly adaptable
cat like a leopard,
that's not a problem.
Leopards, the widest
ranging of all big cats,
have learned to live alongside
other big cats, even lions.
Just 200 years ago these
lions roamed the vast expanse
between Greece and
Syria to India.
Today, a relic population of
the Asiatic lion survives here.
Hunting and habitat loss
had reduced their numbers to
less than a dozen.
The Nawab of Junagadh
protected these last lions in
Gir, his royal hunting preserve.
Now a national park, in the
western state of Gujarat,
Gir is the Asiatic
lions' last stronghold.
The state forest department
tirelessly works to ensure
their survival.
They don't look
that different from
their African counterparts.
Males typically
have a smaller mane,
but the most distinctive
difference is the skin fold
that runs along the
Asiatic lion's belly.
These lions also live
in smaller prides.
Summer temperatures in the dry
forests of Gir can soar beyond
110 degrees Fahrenheit.
With most natural water
sources drying up,
the Park Management provides
fresh drinking water.
These man-made watering holes
become the centers of activity.
The lions never stray too far.
But they haven't
come just to drink.
Spotted deer, known as chital,
are the most common deer
across the forested
parts of the country.
And with a healthy
population of chital in Gir,
some are destined
to become lion food.
But with so many eyes watching,
it's hard for lions to sneak up,
unless the deer are distracted.
These young stags
practice for the rut,
unaware of the lions.
A lioness will make a kill
on average about once a week.
Able to consume up to 20% of
their body weight in a single
sitting, this 150-pound chital
carcass will feed the lioness
for three to four days.
With a young male joining in,
this meal won't last long.
They need to eat fast.
The roar of another lion can
be heard a few miles away,
announcing his presence.
NARRATOR: Male lions announce
themselves with a roar.
A square vocal fold helps
create one of the loudest
calls in the animal kingdom,
heard up to five miles away.
With a female in heat
in the neighborhood,
he'll have to follow his
nose until he finds her.
It all comes down to a
little bit of chemistry.
The lioness leaves behind
chemical cues in her urine.
These pheromones activate
the Flehmen response.
All cats do this.
Though it looks aggressive,
it's just the lion's way of
drawing in the scent over
the Jacobson's organ on the
roof of his mouth.
That tells him if
she's ready to mate.
Even under the best conditions,
mating is a matter of
quantity over quality.
In three days, this lioness
will mate over 100 times with
multiple males, a strategy
perhaps to prevent infanticide.
Four months later, the
lioness has had her litter,
usually two to four cubs.
This youngster, hungry
and wobbly after a nap,
comes to suckle.
She'll have to find
her own mother.
In Gir, in these small prides,
usually only one cub lives to
see its first birthday.
Even so, the Asiatic lion, the
only lion outside of Africa,
is slowly making a comeback.
Now numbering more than 500,
they've spread beyond the
boundaries of the park to
roam nearly 8,000 square miles
across southern Gujarat,
a remarkable comeback
for a big cat
that teetered on the
brink of extinction.
NARRATOR: While lions adorn
India's official emblem,
it is the tiger, the
very image of royalty,
that is India's national animal.
For millennia, they have ruled
the forests and grasslands
across the country.
In the 1900s, about 100,000
tigers prowled across Asia.
Their numbers have dropped to
fewer than 4,000 worldwide,
and 70% of them live in India.
Ranthambhore Tiger
Reserve in northern India.
Once a royal hunting preserve,
Ranthambhore's rugged
550-square-mile wilderness
is a natural paradise.
A paradise that has everything
the world's largest cat needs,
dense cover to blend in,
an abundance of deer to feed on,
and ample sources of
freshwater to cool off.
All of this has made
Ranthambhore home to 70 tigers,
some of whom are among
the world's most iconic.
The most famous of them was
Machali, the Tiger Queen.
The heroine of several films,
Machali attracted visitors
from all over the world.
Mother to four litters of cubs,
Machali lived for 19 years,
amongst the longest
of any wild tiger.
Now her daughters and
granddaughters carry on her dynasty.
Krishna, Machali's daughter
from her fourth litter,
has now inherited her
mother's former territory,
the best in Ranthambhore, and
is the new Queen of the Lakes.
Being a successful
mother is in her genes,
and she has just finished raising
her second litter to adulthood.
The two female cubs,
Lightning and Arrowhead,
are independent,
making their own kills.
Whereas Pacman, their brother, is
still learning the art of hunting.
But at two years, he needs
to learn to be independent,
to go and carve out
his own territory.
With stealth, focus, and
pads that absorb sound,
Krishna prepares to strike.
These play fights are
not what they used to be.
By cutting off her ties,
Krishna is teaching him to be
independent, the most
important life lesson.
Male tigers can weigh
well over 500 pounds.
They are the largest
of all big cats,
and the biggest threat to
a dispersing young male.
Pacman will have to learn to
steer clear of other tigers.
Krishna travels across her
kingdom marking the trees.
Her scent-rich urine warns
other tigers that this
territory is taken.
Now with her new litter of
three cubs, Krishna needs to
keep them close to
ensure their safety.
A new queen is preparing
to challenge the throne.
NARRATOR: At Ranthambhore,
the royal power around the
lakes has shifted.
Pacman's sister, Arrowhead, is now
the queen of the lake territory.
Krishna, being the gracious
mother that she is,
has left this prime real
estate to her daughter.
She's moved to the hilly outer
ridge of the lakes to raise
her third litter of cubs.
This was once her territory
and she knows it well.
Krishna's cubs, now a year old,
still depend on her to teach
them essential survival skills.
Lesson one, stay
put while she hunts.
The dense foliage is good for
concealment but also prevents
making a direct strike.
Even for an experienced
tiger mother like Krishna,
most hunts end in failure.
The cubs hold their position.
But not for long.
Play fighting is a
good way to pass time.
Krishna returns empty-handed.
Lesson two, learning the trails
from one ravine to the next.
The cubs will need to build
a mental map of the water
holes in the area.
In the punishing temperatures
of the summer dry season,
finding water and being able to
cool off is critical for survival.
Not only are these watering
holes good for hunting,
they are also places to cool
down in the midday heat.
Having evolved in the cool
northern climates tigers are
not well adapted to
such high temperatures.
Unlike most other big
cats, tigers love water.
Rubbing cheeks helps spread
pheromones that build family bonds.
And playtime hones
observation skills.
Even a tiny palm squirrel
needs to be wary of this
"hunter-in-training."
For the next year, Krishna
will need to feed, train,
and protect her young
family, not an easy task,
even for a seasoned mother.
With this new generation,
Krishna is ensuring that
Machli's powerful legacy
continues to grow,
and Ranthambhore remains
a tiger paradise.
As tigers battle for prime
territory in India's wild spaces,
those wild spaces
themselves are getting ever
harder to find.
For now, India's big cats
are holding their own.
But that wasn't always the case.
Cheetah once inhabited India,
but by the middle of the 20th
century they were wiped out.
Many of India's other big
cats nearly went the same way.
But the future is
starting to improve.
Human pressure is the biggest
threat to India's big cats,
and it will take human
resolve and intervention
in order to save them.
Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.
They are marvels of evolution,
with lightning fast reflexes,
detonating muscle power,
and extraordinary senses.
All part of the package
of being a super predator.
In India, wild cats occupy
every landscape from the
snow-capped peaks of the
Himalaya to the dense jungles
of the Western Ghats.
India's big cats have kept
up with a rapidly changing
landscape and live alongside
a growing human population,
sometimes in harmony and
sometimes in conflict.
(man screaming)
But what does their future hold?
(theme music plays).
The Himalaya, a land
of eternal snow.
A landscape so unapproachable
that humans left it alone
as the home of the gods.
These high mountains created
by impact and shaped by the
forces of sun, wind, and
water are one of the least
populated places on Earth.
But even here in this
barren landscape of boulders
and ice, life exists.
The top cat in this desolate
landscape is the snow leopard.
Large fur-lined paws
act as snow-shoes,
and a thick furry tail, nearly
the same length as its body,
not only provides balance, but
also acts like a warm scarf.
Its compact body, small ears,
and a double layer of thick
fur, help minimize heat loss.
Large nasal cavities
and well-developed lungs
compensate for the thin air.
All this, combined
with a special gene,
allow these supercats to rule over
their vast mountain landscape.
But in winter, when the
temperature plummets far below
zero and deep snow
makes passage difficult,
snow leopards need to move
to parts of the mountain
with less snow.
Their main prey in this
area, the urial and the ibex,
have already moved.
With food so scarce there's
demand for every morsel.
He's not watching the urial,
he's plotting an easier meal.
Perched at 13,000 feet, at the
edge of the snow line is the
little village of Ulley,
a few houses, a dozen people,
some sheep, and yak-cow
hybrids called dzo.
(speaking native language)
NARRATOR: They live as they
have for several centuries.
(speaking native language)
NARRATOR: They know their
feline neighbor well.
In the local language,
Ladakhi, they call it "shan."
Grey as the mountains,
elusive as a ghost,
the shan watches his neighbors
from a hilltop vantage point.
As night falls on
Ulley, he descends.
Waiting until the
village sleeps.
Then under the cover of
darkness, makes his kill.
A young dzo is his prize.
But at nearly twice its weight
the snow leopard can't carry
it very far.
He eats what he can and
returns to his rocky abode.
In these open mountains, it's
impossible to hide a kill.
The commotion attracts
the attention of another
super-predator, the wolf.
The grey wolf in the Himalaya
weighs about the same as an
adult snow leopard.
But wolves rarely travel alone.
The pair could overpower
the solitary cat.
The snow leopard stands down
and can only watch as the
wolves eat their fill.
No sooner have they left,
a red fox begins to devour
what he can.
With food so scarce, he can't
afford to miss any opportunity.
But it's hard to
eat a meal in peace,
when you could be
a meal yourself!
It's time for the shan to
reclaim his kill from the
canine scavengers.
But more scavengers
wait in the wings.
Magpies.
The snow leopard has
already lost enough.
He's in no mood for sharing.
The pesky magpies don't
give him a moment's peace.
Eventually the shan gets fed.
The best meat now eaten,
the shan abandons the kill
and leaves the cleanup crew
to squabble over the remains.
A majority of India's snow
leopards live with humans and
livestock outside
protected areas.
With an estimated worldwide
population as low as 4,000,
it's hard to know what the
future holds for snow leopards.
They've adapted to thrive in
the cool high mountains of
central Asia and the Himalaya.
But this may no longer be
the abode of eternal snow.
Rising temperatures
threaten the habitat.
For now, the grey
ghost of the mountains,
is still the top cat living
precariously on the roof
of the world.
Beneath the mountain peaks,
and adapting to a changing
India, roams another
big cat: the leopard.
NARRATOR: Able to carve out a
niche from cities and suburbs
to jungles, and yet
stay nearly invisible,
the leopard has the greatest range
of all the eight species of big cats,
and is found across
much of Africa and Asia.
One place they are seen more
frequently than any other is
in the dry rocky boulders
of southwestern Rajasthan.
Here the Great Indian
Desert meets the Aravallis,
one of the oldest mountain
ranges in the world.
These granite hills, riddled
with channels and fissures
provide refuge to
numerous animals.
And form the perfect den
for these leopard cubs.
Born blind and helpless, the
cubs must wait for about a
week to get their first
look at the world.
Every few days their
mother moves them;
their build-up of scent in the den
could attract unwanted attention.
But getting them on board is
literally like herding cats.
This palace of boulders
is ruled by Cut Ear,
named after a battle scar,
he earned while clawing his
way to power.
He is the father of the cubs
and the undisputed king,
but at over ten years
old his power is waning.
And other males wait for
any sign of weakness,
so they can pounce into power.
They watch his every move.
As do the peafowl.
And the Rabari.
These nomadic people have
lived here with their
livestock for generations,
under a curse.
Legend has it that a saint
once lived here in the hills.
When a Rabari's goat
disturbed his meditation,
the holy man cursed the land.
Leopards would stalk
the Rabari forever.
The Rabari accept their loss
as an offering to the gods
of these hills.
This male, now in his prime,
has trespassed into Cut Ear's
territory and makes
himself at home.
On the other side of the hill,
Cut Ear is busy marking his
domain, unaware of the intruder.
For cats, spraying urine is
like posting on social media.
It lets leopards know about
each other and advertises
females ready to mate.
To assert his dominance, the new male
will want to kill Cut Ear's cubs,
securing a chance to mate
with their mother and
further his own bloodline.
But not on her watch.
This mother will do anything
to protect her cubs.
She's tough, and like
all mother leopards,
she can make it on her own.
But Cut Ear has his own
business with the young male.
They meet head on.
Leopard turf wars can
be fights to the death.
There's tension in the air.
Can Cut Ear defend
his turf against the
more aggressive male?
NARRATOR: Years of experience
defending his turf has taught
Cut Ear to study his
challenger's every move.
The lord of the leopards is
only as good as his last fight.
For now, Cut Ear has
defended his domain and
will continue to rule.
The young male slinks off to
make his own territory elsewhere.
For a highly adaptable
cat like a leopard,
that's not a problem.
Leopards, the widest
ranging of all big cats,
have learned to live alongside
other big cats, even lions.
Just 200 years ago these
lions roamed the vast expanse
between Greece and
Syria to India.
Today, a relic population of
the Asiatic lion survives here.
Hunting and habitat loss
had reduced their numbers to
less than a dozen.
The Nawab of Junagadh
protected these last lions in
Gir, his royal hunting preserve.
Now a national park, in the
western state of Gujarat,
Gir is the Asiatic
lions' last stronghold.
The state forest department
tirelessly works to ensure
their survival.
They don't look
that different from
their African counterparts.
Males typically
have a smaller mane,
but the most distinctive
difference is the skin fold
that runs along the
Asiatic lion's belly.
These lions also live
in smaller prides.
Summer temperatures in the dry
forests of Gir can soar beyond
110 degrees Fahrenheit.
With most natural water
sources drying up,
the Park Management provides
fresh drinking water.
These man-made watering holes
become the centers of activity.
The lions never stray too far.
But they haven't
come just to drink.
Spotted deer, known as chital,
are the most common deer
across the forested
parts of the country.
And with a healthy
population of chital in Gir,
some are destined
to become lion food.
But with so many eyes watching,
it's hard for lions to sneak up,
unless the deer are distracted.
These young stags
practice for the rut,
unaware of the lions.
A lioness will make a kill
on average about once a week.
Able to consume up to 20% of
their body weight in a single
sitting, this 150-pound chital
carcass will feed the lioness
for three to four days.
With a young male joining in,
this meal won't last long.
They need to eat fast.
The roar of another lion can
be heard a few miles away,
announcing his presence.
NARRATOR: Male lions announce
themselves with a roar.
A square vocal fold helps
create one of the loudest
calls in the animal kingdom,
heard up to five miles away.
With a female in heat
in the neighborhood,
he'll have to follow his
nose until he finds her.
It all comes down to a
little bit of chemistry.
The lioness leaves behind
chemical cues in her urine.
These pheromones activate
the Flehmen response.
All cats do this.
Though it looks aggressive,
it's just the lion's way of
drawing in the scent over
the Jacobson's organ on the
roof of his mouth.
That tells him if
she's ready to mate.
Even under the best conditions,
mating is a matter of
quantity over quality.
In three days, this lioness
will mate over 100 times with
multiple males, a strategy
perhaps to prevent infanticide.
Four months later, the
lioness has had her litter,
usually two to four cubs.
This youngster, hungry
and wobbly after a nap,
comes to suckle.
She'll have to find
her own mother.
In Gir, in these small prides,
usually only one cub lives to
see its first birthday.
Even so, the Asiatic lion, the
only lion outside of Africa,
is slowly making a comeback.
Now numbering more than 500,
they've spread beyond the
boundaries of the park to
roam nearly 8,000 square miles
across southern Gujarat,
a remarkable comeback
for a big cat
that teetered on the
brink of extinction.
NARRATOR: While lions adorn
India's official emblem,
it is the tiger, the
very image of royalty,
that is India's national animal.
For millennia, they have ruled
the forests and grasslands
across the country.
In the 1900s, about 100,000
tigers prowled across Asia.
Their numbers have dropped to
fewer than 4,000 worldwide,
and 70% of them live in India.
Ranthambhore Tiger
Reserve in northern India.
Once a royal hunting preserve,
Ranthambhore's rugged
550-square-mile wilderness
is a natural paradise.
A paradise that has everything
the world's largest cat needs,
dense cover to blend in,
an abundance of deer to feed on,
and ample sources of
freshwater to cool off.
All of this has made
Ranthambhore home to 70 tigers,
some of whom are among
the world's most iconic.
The most famous of them was
Machali, the Tiger Queen.
The heroine of several films,
Machali attracted visitors
from all over the world.
Mother to four litters of cubs,
Machali lived for 19 years,
amongst the longest
of any wild tiger.
Now her daughters and
granddaughters carry on her dynasty.
Krishna, Machali's daughter
from her fourth litter,
has now inherited her
mother's former territory,
the best in Ranthambhore, and
is the new Queen of the Lakes.
Being a successful
mother is in her genes,
and she has just finished raising
her second litter to adulthood.
The two female cubs,
Lightning and Arrowhead,
are independent,
making their own kills.
Whereas Pacman, their brother, is
still learning the art of hunting.
But at two years, he needs
to learn to be independent,
to go and carve out
his own territory.
With stealth, focus, and
pads that absorb sound,
Krishna prepares to strike.
These play fights are
not what they used to be.
By cutting off her ties,
Krishna is teaching him to be
independent, the most
important life lesson.
Male tigers can weigh
well over 500 pounds.
They are the largest
of all big cats,
and the biggest threat to
a dispersing young male.
Pacman will have to learn to
steer clear of other tigers.
Krishna travels across her
kingdom marking the trees.
Her scent-rich urine warns
other tigers that this
territory is taken.
Now with her new litter of
three cubs, Krishna needs to
keep them close to
ensure their safety.
A new queen is preparing
to challenge the throne.
NARRATOR: At Ranthambhore,
the royal power around the
lakes has shifted.
Pacman's sister, Arrowhead, is now
the queen of the lake territory.
Krishna, being the gracious
mother that she is,
has left this prime real
estate to her daughter.
She's moved to the hilly outer
ridge of the lakes to raise
her third litter of cubs.
This was once her territory
and she knows it well.
Krishna's cubs, now a year old,
still depend on her to teach
them essential survival skills.
Lesson one, stay
put while she hunts.
The dense foliage is good for
concealment but also prevents
making a direct strike.
Even for an experienced
tiger mother like Krishna,
most hunts end in failure.
The cubs hold their position.
But not for long.
Play fighting is a
good way to pass time.
Krishna returns empty-handed.
Lesson two, learning the trails
from one ravine to the next.
The cubs will need to build
a mental map of the water
holes in the area.
In the punishing temperatures
of the summer dry season,
finding water and being able to
cool off is critical for survival.
Not only are these watering
holes good for hunting,
they are also places to cool
down in the midday heat.
Having evolved in the cool
northern climates tigers are
not well adapted to
such high temperatures.
Unlike most other big
cats, tigers love water.
Rubbing cheeks helps spread
pheromones that build family bonds.
And playtime hones
observation skills.
Even a tiny palm squirrel
needs to be wary of this
"hunter-in-training."
For the next year, Krishna
will need to feed, train,
and protect her young
family, not an easy task,
even for a seasoned mother.
With this new generation,
Krishna is ensuring that
Machli's powerful legacy
continues to grow,
and Ranthambhore remains
a tiger paradise.
As tigers battle for prime
territory in India's wild spaces,
those wild spaces
themselves are getting ever
harder to find.
For now, India's big cats
are holding their own.
But that wasn't always the case.
Cheetah once inhabited India,
but by the middle of the 20th
century they were wiped out.
Many of India's other big
cats nearly went the same way.
But the future is
starting to improve.
Human pressure is the biggest
threat to India's big cats,
and it will take human
resolve and intervention
in order to save them.
Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.