Original subtitles

I've spent much of my working life trying to film big cats.

I've watched them in the wild and analysed the footage in the editing room,

which has given me a real insight into their behaviour.

Today, we can see these amazing predators on our screens anytime we choose.

But until quite recently, we knew practically nothing about them.

Big cats are normally shy and very secretive.

Today, their populations are shrinking fast.

But now we have the means to view them in more detail than ever.

And learn the intricacies of their lives.

Which is just as well, because we need to find ways of

living alongside them before they disappear forever.

Like most big cats, the leopard is a master of secrecy.

It's one of the hardest of all big cats to see, let alone observe.

And this is mainly because leopards need absolute invisibility to hunt.

But also because leopards are vulnerable on the ground.

They always need to look over their shoulder.

Leopards only ever feel safe.

But they never feel truly safe...

in a tree.

In India's Gir forest, a resurgent lion

population is keeping leopards in a state of fear.

Once there were so few lions, that the leopards here became top predator.

But now, the lions are running riot and putting the leopard back in its place.

Leopards are the most dangerous predator in the world.

They are the most dangerous in the world.

For years, this is what leopards have had to contend with.

This is why they're such good climbers, and

why they evolved to be so incredibly secretive.

For me, filming leopards has always been a challenge.

The whole point of these cats is that you can't see them.

They only reveal themselves to us when they judge it really matters.

Actually, that doesn't matter.

It could be argued that the leopard is the most successful of all the big cats.

It certainly is the most numerous...

and still the most widespread.

During the Ice Age, it had a very wide distribution.

Covering Africa, Europe and much of Asia.

Since then, its population has shrunk dramatically.

Yet, it's still the big cat found in more different countries

Leopards can live in almost any habitat, but

it's the big cat which is most at home in forests.

Even where leopards are common, they can be very hard to spot.

Which is perhaps one reason why, when you do finally get a clear view,

the sight of a young leopard in perfect condition is one

of the most beautiful things a human can set eyes upon.

Leopards are often confused with jaguars, but they're very different cats.

The leopard is lighter, with long legs and lots of power in the rear.

It has a much longer tail.

It uses for balance and agility.

They're very graceful animals.

But they still possess the literally superhuman strength of all the cats.

Derived from their special, fast twitch muscle.

This young female is probably still under 40 kilos in weight.

While her mother, patiently waiting for her, is probably no more than 60 kilos.

The cub finally spots her mother.

When the mother looks me in the eye, as if to say she has me covered should I

make a false move, actually I feel honoured with the trust she shows.

Trust without which we'd see nothing.

We'd never get this close without them knowing.

The mother is in the process of helping her daughter learn how to fend for herself.

The daughter is seeking reassurance that their old life

can continue, and they'll soon be going hunting together.

But first things first.

A drink.

In the dry season, animal hoof prints are often the only source of water available.

Life lesson number one for the cub.

How to drink from a muddy hoof print without getting stung by a bee.

These are lucky leopards.

They have prey and space.

If there's anywhere in the world that this young female has a good chance,

it's in Sri Lanka's Yala National Park.

Lions and tigers became extinct here over 10,000 years ago, and

so you'd think that these two don't have much to worry about.

But as we'll see, being the top predator isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Places like this, where leopards have lost their fear of humans, give us an

incredible opportunity to explore their lives.

But in the case of leopards, that means being ready to spend a whole night with

them, as the hours of darkness are when they're most active.

If there's enough moonlight, we can use supersensitive starlight cameras,

or we can add infrared light, invisible to cats and to humans.

When things get really tricky, we can also film with a thermal camera.

It detects the heat from their bodies.

As light levels fall, many of the prey animals gather in herds and open areas.

Wild boar join gatherings of spotted deer.

Before long, the boar find a place to sleep on their own, forming a defensive circle.

Everybody faces outwards.

They're clearly expecting trouble.

The daughter, of course, is filled with

excitement at the chance to hunt on her own.

Stalking and chasing anything that moves.

But this wild boar isn't sleeping.

As a male, he's three or four times heavier than the young leopard.

And he doesn't seem in the least bit worried.

The young leopard can just see him in the darkness,

and is well aware he is completely out of her league.

It's so dark, the boar hasn't noticed the leopard yet.

Only at this point does he realise he's being watched.

And so does what wild boar always do with leopards.

Send them into the trees.

Being in a tree is a natural state for a leopard.

Especially this young female, as she tries to make sense of the world.

The sound in the distance is the alarm call of spotted deer.

Which can only mean one thing.

There's another leopard wandering around.

In Yala, leopards are hard to see in daylight.

But at night, with special equipment, we find them almost anywhere.

Like all true big cats, leopards can roar.

The fact that this male is calling shows he's not at all interested in hunting deer.

The call is meant for other leopards.

And the young female will recognise the owner.

Even if it's her father, she's better off in the tree.

He's just patrolling his territory and the deer mob him.

As long as they're behind him, they move towards him.

So that everybody knows there's a leopard about.

Their calls can be heard almost a kilometre away.

So all the other leopards nearby know exactly where this male is.

But while leopards may recognise his ownership, other animals don't.

In Yala, water buffalo are a particular problem.

And are another reason why trees are a leopard's best friend.

A perfect place to hide, watch and wait for a good time to re-emerge.

Leopard food lives mostly on the ground.

In Africa, small and medium antelope are the favourite prey of leopards.

In Asia, the antelope are mostly replaced by deer.

The daughter goes to find her mother again.

She needs some guidance.

All this time, the mother has barely moved.

The daughter makes the most of her mother's affection, while she still can.

Now finally, the mother takes her daughter hunting.

With the half moon rising, we can switch to super starlight camera.

It's just bright enough to see a herd of sambar edging towards the leopards.

The daughter shows her excitement, while her

mother stays back and lets her get on with it.

But sambar are huge, averaging over 300 kilos or so.

And are way beyond the skills of this young leopard.

Their calls let the leopard know they've seen her.

And now they move in closer to get a better view.

Almost as if to mock her.

Interestingly, we found that when the moon is

up, it was always much harder to find leopards.

Even though there was more light.

And there was often nothing interesting going on.

It could be that moonlight is enough for most

animals to be able to see perfectly well.

So they often revert to their daytime patterns of behaviour.

The mother leopard knows this, which is why

she doesn't bother to go and help her daughter.

Without a moon, leopards were always easy to find, often sleeping on the road.

Perhaps because it's just too dark to navigate

a snake and thorn filled forest safely.

Light levels strongly influence animal behaviour.

At night, like us, monkeys sleep.

But in the daytime, they're nervous of leopard attack.

And spend their time with spotted deer.

The two species work together.

The deer are happy to have the monkey's extra vigilance and are more relaxed.

Which is why most leopards here will be asleep in a tree.

Catching the breeze in the 40 degree heat.

But there are many other good reasons why a

leopard wouldn't bother to hunt when the sun is up.

This deer was killed in the morning.

If there was a leopard anywhere near, it's already been chased away by the buffalo.

Since there are no vultures in Yala, there's a good chance that the leopard

will be able to come and feed once darkness has fallen.

The monkeys in the tree and the jungle crow

indicate that the carcass does have an owner.

This is the daughter leopard.

Her mother is nowhere to be seen.

The buffalo have moved on, but now a large herd of wild boar appear.

And they discover the deer carcass.

The main scavenger in Yala turns out to be wild boar.

While they appear to be like a pack of wolves or hyenas,

they don't actually have the teeth to be real carnivores.

Unlike the cats, dogs and hyenas, wild boar have no carnassians.

The special teeth that enable predators to actually cut skin.

So while the boar can easily remove the soft parts,

there will always be something left for a leopard.

The boar are making the daughter nervous.

She picks a safe moment to find her mother.

Elsewhere, another leopard has braved the daylight to finish an old sandbark gill.

One that's already been ravaged by the boar and has little meat left.

The leopard's special meat-eating teeth allow

it to find food that the pigs can't reach.

The carnassials come into play.

Wild boar are ever present here now.

The fact that there are no tigers in Yala is,

on the one hand, great news for the leopards.

But on the other, if there were tigers, there would be fewer wild boar.

It's only at night that leopards can gain any kind of advantage over the boar.

There's still one there trying to suck the last goodness from the sandbark carcass.

His teeth have no purchasing power on the tough skin.

But in the dark, the ability to move silently...

gives the leopard a big advantage.

And now she can feed in peace.

Leopards have survived for millions of

years by adapting to an ever-changing world.

Watching, waiting for the coast to be clear.

Often, they've lived in very low densities.

But they've always been able to find each other.

This strange sound isn't one of pain.

It's an invitation to a male leopard from a female.

She leaves a tantalising scent trail.

And the male has to track her down.

When he finds her, there's no surprise.

She already knows it's him, as he's fathered a cub with her.

Her invitation was to him specifically.

As the sky brightens, we have the chance to film

this lover's tryst by moonlight for the first time.

Cat sex is more or less the same with most species.

It's the female who initiates.

Her caresses are tender.

But mating can be a violent affair.

All male cats have a barbed penis to stimulate ovulation.

And withdrawal can be quite painful for her.

So the male bites the female's neck to protect himself from attack.

When the female is in season, they may mate as many as 250 times in a couple of days.

As often as every 15 minutes to maximise reproductive success.

The Sri Lankan leopards are among the largest in the world.

And the males are huge compared to the females.

Often exceeding 100 kilos.

Almost the same size as a lioness.

But it doesn't mean they're kings and queens of the jungle.

Here, leopards can't even mate in peace.

After millions of years of being hunted by large

predators, elephants won't tolerate leopards nearby.

Being shunned and chased by wildlife wherever they go hasn't stopped leopards

here in Yala's national park from doing incredibly well.

In fact, this is one of the densest leopard breeds of all populations in the world.

But one of the key reasons for their success is rather surprising.

Humans have provided a helping hand.

There are few natural lakes or ponds in Sri Lanka and for

centuries wildlife has depended on man-made water sources.

Leopards are generally so antisocial, they each want their own place to drink.

Only a mother and cub can share.

The limit to the leopard population in Yala wasn't the availability of prey.

It was water sources.

So in Yala, more artificial water sources were built

in the hope they could increase the number of leopards.

The experiment has been a huge success.

Leopards are really thriving.

Throughout their range, leopards have been living

alongside humans for nearly two million years.

And now their relationship has become even closer.

Leopards know how to keep a very low profile and if they can find food of some

kind, they can easily survive among people.

Sometimes communities are completely unaware of a leopard in their midst.

Only the village dogs know.

And that's because they're the ones at greatest risk.

But there is a place in India where these 21st century

cats have taken living among us to a whole new level.

Mumbai.

The most populous urban area on the subcontinent.

And the most popular place to live.

With over 20 million human inhabitants.

And incredibly, leopards live here too.

Within this huge metropolis lies Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

A protected area like this of around 100 square kilometers

would normally be expected to support only a few leopards.

But here, there are over 40.

At the edges of the city, the leopard's old foe has been domesticated.

Although they've also entered bred with wild boar.

When most residents are asleep, leopards

make their way out of the park into the city.

Carefully and quietly.

Cubs learn the route from an early age.

This is their urban jungle.

The leopards don't have to go far to find what they're after.

An abundance of food.

These cats are known to feed on about a hundred different prey species.

So if it moves, it's probably on the list.

The ability to eat whatever they can catch is one reason why they're so successful.

But she could no more kill this big sow here

than she could in the forest of Sri Lanka.

The thick neck of pigs makes it very difficult

for leopards to kill by strangulation.

Of course, it's not the adult pigs she's after.

It's the piglets.

She approaches the shed where they all live.

Her plan is to make a hit and run.

But if she's discovered, she'll have to flee.

She needs to be completely silent.

In the darkness, she hears the approach of an adult and makes a silent escape.

Pigs here too take a very dim view of leopards sneaking around.

But actually, piglets from the periphery of the city only

form a small part of the leopard diet here in Mumbai.

Dogs are their main city staple.

In fact, leopards are well known for taking foxes and jackals in wilderness areas.

So the domestic dogs here are a perfectly natural prey for leopards.

Most dogs live in the denser parts of the city.

And it's here that the leopards' extraordinary skills are tested.

They're so good at staying out of sight that few

people ever witness this night hunter's activities.

Only surveillance cameras can reveal the truth.

There are 95,000 dogs in Mumbai and the leopards know where they live.

The element of surprise is essential.

The leopard silences its victim with a throat bite before it can make a sound.

With such a high density of people, human encounters with leopards are inevitable.

Only a very small proportion of these result in injuries to leopards or people.

This pregnant female was filmed on our remote camera after midnight.

A few days later, this man walked the same path.

At the approach of a human, the leopards just hide.

Only when cornered do they attack.

In towns and cities across the country, leopards

often get themselves into unfamiliar territory.

Showing the sheer strength and determination to survive

that got them through the last million or so years.

The leopard just wants to get out of the way.

A leopard on the loose attracts hordes of spectators, all eager

just to get a look at this most elusive of their neighbours.

Keen to protect both people and leopards, the Indian wildlife authorities generally

dart the cat and take it back to a suitable habitat after a health check.

For leopards, Mumbai is their home.

It is their home too.

To me, it's incredible that not only can they survive here, but also that this is

in fact the densest population of leopards in the world.

With their skills of stealth and concealment, leopards

demonstrate that big cats really can live alongside us.