All language subtitles for BBC.Lost.Land.of.the.Tiger.3of3.PDTV.Xvid.AC3.MVGroup.org.eng

An international team of explorers,

scientists and filmmakers is on
a critical mission to save tigers.

THUNDER CLAPS

Revered and feared,
the majestic tiger has been hunted
to the brink of extinction.

But the mysterious Himalayan kingdom
of Bhutan may hold new hope.

What we find out here
could be essential
for the survival of the species.

The expedition has found tigers
in the tropical south.

Now, the search continues
into the mountains, where science
says tigers shouldn't exist.

We have to look everywhere.

We have to search everything.
That's our mission.

As the team take on the mighty
Himalayas, they will face
their toughest challenges yet.

Predators enter camp.

We've got a cat!
Gee! Oh, we've got a cat.

Oh! Food supplies are ruined.

I've suddenly become a vegetarian.

And they are stalked by big cats.

And I don't know where the hell I am.

What they discover in the mountains
could change the fate of tigers
forever.

Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh.

Bhutan is a little-known
Himalayan country.

From its border with India,
the land rises 7,000 metres into
the highest mountain range on earth.

For three weeks, the expedition
has been based in the tropical
south.

Now they're packing up
jungle base camp.

The final and most crucial phase
of the expedition has begun.

A small team is travelling
into the high Himalayas

to investigate rumours that tigers
are living at extreme altitudes.

Gordon Buchanan is a wildlife
cameraman, with 10 years' experience
filming big cats.

He's returning to these mountains
to check the camera traps he set
at the start of the expedition.

All ready to go.

Good luck.

It's quite exciting because all this
time that I've been at base camp,

the camera traps that I laid up in
the Himalayas a good while back,

they've been clicking away
and recording images up there.

With Gordon is Oxford University
biologist Dr George McGavin.

He will be carrying out a health
check of the forest, to see if it's
rich enough to support big cats.

The cooler, higher altitude will
have a completely different fauna.

Totally uncharted, unknown in terms
of its animals and plants.

These mountains are the missing
piece of a puzzle that might save
tigers from extinction in the wild.

Tigers used to range
across all of Asia.

Only small pockets remain.

But there is a master plan

to link isolated tiger populations
in the last wild landscape along
the foothills of the Himalayas.

No-one knows how many tigers
there are in Bhutan.

The vast tiger corridor
will only be effective
if evidence of tigers can be found.

Not just in its southern jungles,
but in the mountains, too.

Time is not on their side.

Tigers could go extinct
over the next one or two decades.

Literally, tigers are dying
as we speak.

The inspiration behind this
master plan to save tigers is
big cat expert Dr Alan Rabinowitz.

The Himalayan corridor,
by its nature, by its name,
is a very mountainous region.

Its survival will depend
on whether or not

tigers can live and move through
some of these high mountain ranges.

The team has just two weeks
to find that vital evidence.

Gordon and George's new base camp
is 3km higher than their last one.

With the help of local herders,

this expedition will be the first
from the outside world to explore
this remote region.

There are no roads here.

So the expedition's kit
is arriving by pony train.

Gordon's prepared for anything.
He's brought an arsenal
of high-tech cameras.

If we're going to be successful
up here, we have to throw everything
we've got at it.

So we've got the thermal camera,
we've got the infra-red camera,

we've got the big long lens
and the camera traps.

Because for Alan's idea
of the tiger corridor to work,

we not only have to find tigers
down in the south, but we have
to find tigers throughout Bhutan.

Explorer Steve Backshall
is the third and final member
of the mountain team.

He is five days' walk
to the northeast of Gordon
and George's mountain camp.

Steve's trekking up to the Tibetan
border, to a remote peak where
tigers are rumoured to roam.

Local people call it Gang Chen Ta -
Tiger Mountain.

As far as knowledge of tigers go,
this part of the Himalaya
hasn't been explored by anybody.

So any information we can find
up here is going to be
massively valuable.

Steve has tracked deadly predators
across every continent.

Now he's on the trail of tigers.

His field skills will help him
discover whether legends of tigers

living at high altitude
in the Himalayas are true.

Fact and fiction can become blurred
at these extreme altitudes.

Just saw quite a large shape
moving into these trees.

I'm not 100% sure what it is,
so going to just move quite quietly.

Bhutan's mysterious mountains
are supposed to be home to a huge
hairy creature called the Yeti.

Oh, it's a yak.

There are some wild yak left in
the Himalaya. There are not many.

Most of them are domesticated,

and just allowed to roam free
and graze like this one here.

Yak usually occur too high
to be tiger prey.
I've never heard of it happening.

But it could.

A male tiger needs to eat
close to Steve's body weight
in fresh meat every week.

The best way to track down
an elusive tiger
is to first find its prey.

On this main track that
we've been walking on,

all of the tracks
that are left behind

are from the shod hooves
of horses and donkeys.

This here, this kind of chute
running down the hillside
is very, very steep,

and it's not made
by domestic animals.

This is definitely coming
from wild animals.

So there you can see
a very definite cloven hoof.

Slightly splayed because it's
going uphill on a soft surface,

but that is from a sambar deer.

It's the largest deer
found round here,
and the favourite prey of the tiger.

So even though we haven't actually
seen any of these animals yet
they're definitely here,

and it's really, really good news
for us because this is exactly the
kind of large prey that tigers need.

I mean, they'd need to eat
something the size of a sambar deer
probably at least once a week.

Before it gets dark, Gordon
and George head off to get a feel
for the forest around camp.

BIRD CALLS

The altitude will make
exploring here a physical challenge.

We've just moved from
the tropical forest at low altitude
up to 10,000 feet in an hour,

and you feel a bit breathless.

So, I'm not going to be racing about
after insects for a day or two.

Well, a day.

George will perform a rapid health
check of this forest by surveying
the smaller animals that live here.

It's early spring,
so it should be full of life.

Absolutely stunning.

FAINT PECKING

A woodpecker.

I reckon it will be very hard
to see anything in this.

I reckon we'll have to have
a lot of luck on our side.

Cos even if you're very careful,
you make just too much noise.

TWIGS SNAP

Gordon's exploring
the perimeter of camp.

Just off the track, a huge scat.

This is probably the kind
of upper end of a leopard scat,

kind of lower end of a tiger scat.
It could be either.

But it is definitely from a big cat.

And we are... Camp is just on
the other side of the trees there.

200 yards away.

Wow.

I always think, where a cat walks
once, it's likely to walk again.

Amazing that we've just arrived
and we're finding signs of big cats
right beside camp.

There's no way of telling
if they're the droppings
of a tiger or a leopard.

It's a promising lead
for the expedition,

but signs of any big cat prowling
so close is a serious worry
for the herders.

They round up their animals
and light fires.

One domestic animal like this
would be an easy meal.

25 may tempt the predator
even closer.

That's a very smart idea to have
them all tied up to a rope here,

where they can have an eye on them,

than having them all around
the edge here. Cos that's a risk.

And they are now very concerned
about the thought that they
might lose one of their animals.

Big cats usually avoid humans.

But hungry tigers and leopards
WILL eat people.

They ambush their prey,
ideally in the pitch dark.

Everyone must be on their guard.

If a big cat does prowl
close to camp,

Gordon should spot it, using
night vision or thermal imaging
gear,

which picks up body heat.

After five cold hours,
George sees something
unfamiliar in the darkness.

I just walked out and I saw eyeshine
on some animal over here,
but it was moving in an odd way.

It was as if it was flying, but not.

It is 100% big cat.

It had a long tail.

The thermal camera picks up
the ponies and a small hot-spot
in the trees behind them.

Gordon's suspects it's a leopard.

But he needs confirmation.

Right, do you know
what I'm going to do?

And I think I have to do this
alone, is try and go up
and intercept the leopard.

He's not going to come down.
I'm not going to put him off.

But if I can go ahead of him,
I might get some shots
of him on this camera.

George will stay in camp
with the thermal camera,

and warn Gordon
if the leopard appears.

He looks very alone there.
A little white figure.

(It's behind you!)

That's the dog there.

DOGS BARK

Dogs have seen someone
or heard something.

It'll take more than a little dog
like that to put a leopard off.

One of the favourite things that
leopards like to eat are dogs.

I wonder, I wonder, I wonder.

You know, I'm convinced that
that leopard is still there.

Gordon, there seems to be a
very, very faint white spot

just up from you to your left.

Towards me or away from me?

If you spin round,

there's a very, very tiny white spot

just up the hill a bit. Over.

OK, Gordon the thing that I could
see which is a white spot
ran or moved very quickly

to the right and then back again
to the left, and I think it was a
smaller animal on a tree branch.

OK, I'm going to pull out of here.

I shall see you in a minute.

If it was a leopard Gordon saw,
it seems to have moved off.

But he's barely back in camp
when the herders' dogs

pick up something the team's
high-tech cameras have not.

The ponies sense it, too.

Some have broken their tethers and
have strayed close to the tree line.

There's a distinctive
shape on the thermal camera.

We've got a cat.
Gee. Oh, we've got...

a cat following one of the ponies.

It looks like a leopard.
It looks like a leopard.

The ponies that we're using
to help us with our equipment,

they just go off and they start
foraging in the trees close by.

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. It's still coming,
it's still coming.

We are right in the middle of camp.

This is the first night here up in
the mountains and we have a big cat.

Look at that.

Just absolutely bold as brass.

It's not as thick-set as a tiger.

You know, these cats living up here
will not be that used
to seeing horses,

and this one's just
taking full advantage of it.

Oh, I've just lost him.
No, I've lost it.

There's nowhere in the world that
you can just show up,

drop out of a helicopter
and see leopards. Nowhere.

Has this night been a one-off
or are Bhutan's mountains a
refuge for other rare cats?

Finding leopards at this altitude

is no guarantee that tigers
also exist here.

Steve is trekking
towards Tiger Mountain,

along paths made by generations
of remote Himalayan tribes.

He's not finding the
big prey he'd hoped for.

Just caught a flash of golden colour,
and having taken a few minutes
just to look around me,

I've seen that this hillside is
absolutely covered with marmots.

Marmots are very good at
taking care of themselves.

If one of them senses the presence
of a predator, they'll let out
a big alarm call like a whistle,

and all of them will just
dive for burrows instantly.

Leopards will eat marmots,
but they're probably too small
to be tiger prey.

Ah, there they go.

Two males letting off steam.

Almost like all-in
wrestlers with each other.

I guess because now
is a time of plenty,

and marmots don't have to worry so
much about laying down fat reserves
and gathering stuff for hibernation,

they're just letting off steam.

It's hilarious to watch.

Gordon is heading for
the top of the mountain

to check camera traps he set out at
the very start of the expedition.

Thick bamboo and the punishing
gradient reminds him how unlike
classic tiger habitat this is.

Considering how much effort it takes
me to walk round here, it's going
to have an effect on the tigers.

At the moment, I just think...

it seems just ridiculous
that they might even be here.

If it wasn't hard enough,
the altitude, even at this
height, really kicks in.

Going downhill's fine.

As soon as you start coming up,
it really hits you.

And it's really steep here so you're
having to work 10 times as hard.

Oh, gosh.
I wonder how George is doing.

BRANCHES SNAP / HE YELLS

George is still finding his feet.

His 30 years of field experience
will be invaluable in assessing

whether these forests
really can support tigers.

This stump is just
full of this stuff.

The wood's just rotten away.
But what's interesting

is that I can see no signs
of any insect there moving.

Which is sort of surprising.
But...

there's plenty more stumps
and plenty more rotten logs.

But no bugs.

Even in spring, temperatures drop
below freezing most nights.

There are far fewer animals here
than in the tropical forests
the team's just left.

George will have to use every trick
to find out what lives here.

Each discovery will be included in
the scientific report he's compiling
for the prime minister of Bhutan.

Oh! Look.

Wow.

These chicks have just hatched.

To find out what kind
of birds they are,

George will have to wait
for the adults to return.

OK, that's the female back, and
she's got a beak full of earthworms.

My goodness, that's a lot of worms.

It's really great to be having a
really good view of these chicks and
actually see what they're being fed.

Which is the only way of finding out,
to sit here and actually watch them.

Obviously those birds
are a lot better at finding

earthworms and insects than I am.

But then I'm not a white-collared
blackbird. There we are.

Gordon's approaching the camera
traps he set at 5,000 metres.

At this altitude,
it's too harsh, even for trees.

Can tigers really have adapted
to such an extreme environment?

Gordon's camera traps
may hold the answer.

They've been recording
everything that moves past them.

First one.

Come on, please,
we've got to get something.

We've got to get something.

Often the case is with camera traps
you get every animal apart from
the one that you're actually after.

Oh, look, is that choughs?

Yeah, these birds have set it off.

Actually, when I was up there,
I saw the choughs flying
about over that ridge.

OK, you can see
what's triggered this.

Heavy snow. Even though it
actually looks like rain.

Oh, fox! Wow!

Great. Red fox.

Oh, you're beautiful. Look at that.

Oh, it's posing perfectly
for the camera as well.

Gosh, that is lovely.

They're the same red foxes that
we get in the UK. They're amazing.

They really are amazing animals,
the fact that they can make a living

from the dustbins outside our houses
and they can make a living here,
high up in the Himalayas.

Oh, what was that?
What was that? What was that?

Jesus, is that a snow leopard?

You ratbag! It is!

Snow leopards are
incredibly rare and elusive.

Oh, wow.

No wonder hardly
anybody sees these cats,
they're just so well camouflaged.

You could literally walk past that
within four metres and not see it,
easily.

It looks like it's a cub.

And the reason it's staying there
for such a long time, I'm guessing,

is that its mother has left it there
while she's gone off hunting.

Oh, wow.

That is just stunning.

Oh, it's come right
up to the camera.

That is one of the most
exquisite-looking animals
I've ever seen.

Snow leopards are
an exceptional find.

But maybe 5,000 metres
is just too high for tigers.

Gordon decides to intensify his
search lower down the mountain.

He's brought extra camera traps
from the old base camp in the south

and sets them out across
the mountain side, from
the tree line at 4,000 metres...

right down to the bamboo forest
near their new camp.

While Gordon's on the trail of
majestic big cats, George has
found something less appealing.

These are flesh flies.

There is an animal in here somewhere.

There is something...

There is something
here that is not right.

BUZZING

Blow flies have found their
way into the tent where the
expedition's meat is stored.

If you don't have a refrigerator,

you have to eat dry meat or dry fish.

And that does attract a lot of flies.

There are more insects in this tent
than I've found in the entire forest.

Mind you, it's only one species.

Look at that, in there.

That's fly eggs!

Within hours, these fly eggs
will hatch into maggots.

I've suddenly become a vegetarian.

In the far north of Bhutan,

15 kilometres from the border
with Tibet, Steve's almost
in sight of Tiger Mountain,

where local legends
say tigers roam.

This is probably our best
chance of seeing things.
We're just at the tree line

and, all around us,
the hillsides are open.

So we can see for a long, long way.

Oh, hang on!

That's a huge herd of animals.

I mean, I reckon there's
got to be 40 or 50 there.

They are called blue sheep
because they have a kind of
slatey blue-grey coat.

And there's...

I can see one adult male

with huge horns.

They're totally at home out here,
in this steep-sided, barren land.

They're incredibly graceful
and nimble over the rocks.

But if the tiger really is
living in this sort of area,
or anywhere near here,

that's what it's going to be
feeding on. Blue sheep.

For an ambush predator like a
snow leopard or a tiger,
this is kind of easy game.

Large herds of blue sheep
would be perfect prey for a tiger.

But science says tigers
don't live at these heights.

Steve will need to find
concrete evidence to prove
the textbooks wrong.

The first step is to
meet the people of Laya.

Hello, hello.

It's one of the highest villages
in Bhutan and the gateway
to Tiger Mountain.

If there are tigers
living at 4,000 metres,
surely the villagers will know?

This would have to be just about
the most spectacular spot
on earth to build a village.

The houses are just exquisite.

All of the wood is
beautifully painted.

Journeys like this are all about
auspicious signs in Buddhism, and you
don't get much more auspicious than

that beautifully painted
image of a tiger.

Tigers decorate every house.

Steve's keen to find out if they're
imagery from local folklore or a
picture of real life around here.

1,000 metres below,
Gordon is trying everything
to get hard evidence of tigers.

He's looking for a vantage point in
the bamboo forest to set up a hide.

Whoa, look at this. It's all bare.

Lots of signs of signs of animals
having used this area.

Wonder if they're sheltering.

The big rock overhang, here.

Oh, some dung here.

Oh, do you know what
I think this is? Look.

I bet you it's a salt lick.

Let me just see.

Yeah.

It's very salty.

Deer and other plant-eating animals
don't get enough salt in their diet.

Sooner or later,
they have to visit salt licks.

Gordon hopes tiger prey will
be drawn out of the forest
and tigers won't be far behind.

All he has to do is
sit in his hide and wait.

# At the back of my mind

# I was only hoping
that I might just get back... #

Up in Laya Village,
Steve has been invited to the home
of a village elder and his family.

Kuzo zangpo la.

Oh, look at that.

I'm Steve. Yes.

Pleased to meet you.

HE SPEAKS HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE
Kinle? Steve.

Kinle has spent his whole
life in Laya, and will know
about the animals found here.

Oh, wow.

Sit here?

Before Steve can ask any questions,
his hosts prepare him
a medicinal drink.

It's supposed to give him strength
for his onward journey.

Oh, wow, look at that.

This is the famous Cordyceps fungus.

It is essentially a fungus
growing out of a caterpillar.

How anyone came up with the idea that
this could actually become

a sort of panacea,
a medicine that could cure all ills,

is totally beyond me.

But it does have to be
one of THE great, weird,

grotesque miracles of nature.

You can still see the almost
intact, if somewhat desiccated,

body of the moth caterpillar.

This is its head up here.
And the fungus,

the fruiting body of the fungus,
has erupted clean out of the head.

That is just bizarre.

Right. So she's just put one
of the caterpillar in with some
of this distilled wheat liquor.

And then drink?
SHE SPEAKS HER NATIVE LANGUAGE

And it's good for stomach? Yeah? OK.

Right, if I actually drank all of
this, forget about the caterpillar,

I would not only be hanging drunk
but I think very, very sick,
particularly at this altitude.

So I've just got to figure out
how much I can take and be polite.

Oh, dear.

CROAKILY:
That's good!

THEY LAUGH

HE COUGHS AND SPLUTTERS

Yeah, it's good. I'd like to
say I can feel it working,

but I'm sure that's just the booze.

But it's Gordon who needs the hit.

The last six hours at the salt lick
have passed very slowly indeed.

Oh, what's that?

Nothing.

There's nothing.

This is so time-consuming,
just sitting here, waiting.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

You just feel a bit silly,

sitting in a hide, waiting,

in the hope that a tiger's
just going to amble past

in the short time
that I have to spend in here.

That's the great thing about
the camera traps,

you just put them in
and leave them.

You put ten camera traps out and
they can stay there 24 hours a day,

daytime, night-time,

functioning,
always watching, always ready.

Unlike me in a hide.

George has discovered some
curious holes near camp
and he's gone to investigate.

Put that in there.

Woo-hoo, nice.

Right, let's see
what we've got in here.

A voyage into the darkness.

HE HUMS THE THEME FROM THE A-TEAM

Clearly been used.

It's quite clean.

That is definitely working.

(Ah! It's a pika.

(They're very similar to
rabbits and hares.

(Look at it.

(Let's see if I can get closer to it.

(I think he might be getting a little
bit annoyed about the fact that I'm
trampling across his burrow system.

(This is just... I never thought
I'd get this close to a pika.)

HE CHUCKLES

(I'm going!

(I've heard they like flowers
as a bit of a treat.)

George wants to tempt a pika
even closer.

(I could have touched it.

(Oh, my God.

(It's eating the white ones.

(I don't believe it!

(Look.

(I'm actually...)
HE LAUGHS

George is discovering this
mountain habitat is far richer
than it first appeared.

It's a case of
knowing where to look.

(This is very difficult.

(This whole bank has been
burrowed away, it's very soft. Oh!

(Oh!

(Ah! Oh, my God.)

In Laya,
Steve's welcoming ceremony is over.

He can start asking
direct questions.

HE SPEAKS HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE

Kinle is a farmer. This is kind of
ideal for us, because to find someone
who does travel right across

the full range of altitudes here,
he could have really good handle

on what's going on
with the big cats here.

Kinle, what wildlife,
what animals do you see here?

HE SPEAKS HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE

The first things he said he sees
as far as wildlife goes
were things you'd expect.

Then, he said he also sees tiger.
Sometimes they'll see the footprints,
the pugmarks in the snow.

And also the carcasses of animals
that have been killed by tiger.

How big would you say a tiger
footprint would be normally?

HE SPEAKS HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE

I completely assumed that
Tiger Mountain was a name
purely out of mythology.

But Kinle is telling me,
the reason it got this name
is because there are tigers there.

If that's true,
then that's a really big deal.

Because the base of Tiger Mountain
is well above the tree line

and much higher than tigers
are actually thought to ever go.

Any real evidence we can find
that this is true
is a major, major discovery.

Steve has his first real lead
that tigers might be living up here.

To check out these stories,
he will leave Laya and continue
on towards Tiger Mountain.

Kinle will set him off
on his journey.

These are prayer wheels. You see them
very often in Buddhist culture.
And you have to spin them clockwise.

It's auspicious,
particularly for a journey.

Oh, there's a big one. Yes, yeah.

BELL RINGS

If Tiger Mountain is home to
a secret population of tigers,

living at over 4,000 metres, it
won't just be exciting new science.

It would prove that tigers
live throughout Bhutan.

The country could become a heartland
within the proposed tiger corridor,

from which they could spread out
and repopulate the whole region.

In the bamboo forest near camp,
Gordon has given up on the hide.

He's keen to see if the camera traps
have had more luck.

This one's here, still here,
which is good.

Oh, come on. Please, please, please.

Undetected,
the remote cameras have been quietly

filming everything that moves
past them in this secret forest.

A rare golden cat that almost
nothing is known about in the wild.

A bizarre-looking serow.

Herds of takin on their summer
migration to high alpine pastures.

Langur monkeys.

A rare glimpse of the shy red panda.

Huge Himalayan black bears.

And, most amazing of all, a leopard,
scent-marking its territory.

Probably the same cat that stalked
through camp on the first night.

I'm absolutely astounded by the
numbers of animals living here,

compared to what we're seeing.

And these little camera traps,
they're giving us a little kind of
peek through a keyhole

into a very rich environment,
a place that is more than capable
of supporting tigers.

Come on, just once,
I don't even want a whole tiger.

I just want a tail.

A stripe. An ear. Just something
to tell me that tigers are here.

Time is running out.

Steve has finally reached
the foot of Tiger Mountain.

This is where the Layap tribe
say they have seen tigers.

We've been going for six days now
and we're coming right up to the
northernmost extreme of Bhutan.

Up there is Tiger Mountain,
and there's some of the wildest,

most beautiful country
you'll see anywhere in the world.

The thing is that, even though we're
at 4,300 metres, there's still cover,
there still is trees here.

I really didn't think that
we'd have tiger anything like this
kind of height, but it is possible.

There's enough cover for them,
there's potentially prey for them.
I don't know.

Maybe the stories the locals
were telling are true.

That's a lammergeier. They're
just massive, absolutely huge.

These birds have sighted
a carcass of some kind up there,

and that really would be very,
very exciting because anywhere you
find a carcass, you're going to find

other kinds of scavengers
and perhaps even predators.
This is fantastic.

If the animal carcass is fresh, then
the vultures may lead Steve to the
predator that's still feeding on it.

Up here, it can only be a big cat.

Steve follows the vultures. They're
circling close to a small stone hut,

home to a family of yak herders.

The father is worried for
the safety of his small children.

A wild blue sheep has been killed a
few hundred metres behind their hut.

THEY SPEAK THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE

Could you show me where this happened
and maybe if there is any sign there?

TRANSLATOR SPEAKS

HE SPEAKS HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE

TRANSLATOR:
He's going to show us the spot.

OK.

The kill site will hold clues
as to what happened.

Oh, wow!

OK.

This is all rather unpleasant,
very, very strong smell.

It's still, from the waist up,
very much intact.

It's just eaten the back half,
and most of the rest of it is gone.

The herder has found paw prints
close to the carcass,

but they're not big enough to be
the tiger Steve was hoping for.

They belong to something
equally elusive.

Ah, yes.

He sees here

the pugmarks

of the snow leopard, going this way.

I see, yes, I see.

Oh, yes, I do see.

Perfect.

Those are the toes there.

That's the pad print,
toe, toe, toe and toe.

She's moved up this gully, around
like that, and off in that direction,

and she probably used this ridge
line here to actually hide herself.

We have a great chance here, probably
the best I'll ever have in my life,

of actually seeing
and filming a snow leopard.

And I think that chance
is just to sit and wait up there, and
see if it comes back for the remains.

To avoid spooking the cat,
Steve must be alone.

That's the blue sheep
that was killed last night.

I've put myself in

under a rocky overhang

so that my back's protected and
nothing can come at me from behind.

Can't pretend I'm not scared.

I am.

Venturing out at night is risky.

But George and Gordon
know it's the best time to
find evidence of big cats.

It's so thick in there.

Just using this spotlight to just
see if can pick up any eye-shine.

George has spotted a pair of eyes
reflected in his spotlight.

Gordon's night-vision camera
will give them a better look.

You see the eye-shine there,
just in that fork.

OK, moment of truth, George.

Oh, what the...

It must be a squirrel.

Kind of hard to tell.

Yeah, definitely a squirrel. Ahh.

Maybe a flying squirrel.

Now that is a flying squirrel,
see the flaps.

Oh, look at that, oh, yes.

You beauty, you going to do a little
flight for us? Oh, that's amazing.

See this is one creature
that probably wouldn't have much
trouble in this forest.

Imagine just being able
to glide from one end
of the valley to the next.

Bit of evolution.

If I could see him flying,
that would be just amazing.

Gordon continues on, but George is
determined to see a squirrel fly.

The best way is with
his thermal-imaging camera.

Is it going to do anything, I wonder?

Wow! I don't believe it!

That's gone straight off the screen!

That was about 70 metres!
That's unbelievable.

Wow! Look at that!

That was an absolutely enormous leap.

Just by having two flaps of skin
from the legs, acting as a sort of
umbrella, if you like.

Flying squirrels can stay
in the safety of the trees.

With large predators about,

the ground is
the most dangerous place to be.

On the slopes of Tiger Mountain,
the cold has forced Steve to abandon

his stakeout, but he's lost his way
back to the tents.

I suddenly feel very exposed,
out here on my own.

If a snow leopard
can take down a yak,

then it certainly
wouldn't struggle with me.

And I don't know where the hell I am.

DISTANT BARKING

I don't know if you can hear that,
but the yak herder's dog

is going absolutely mental, just
non-stop barking off in the distance.

That could well be
cos he can hear something.

Steve is definitely not alone.

A line of prints here.

Snow leopards, despite being
very powerful animals,
move very lightly on their feet.

This print is still settling,

is still filling with water,
you can still

see it moving around.

This is really fresh. She was here

maybe just a minute or two ago.

She could be watching me right now.

I've spun myself around now.

No idea where I am.

That's where I've just come from.

There's eye-shine dead ahead of me.

Oh, there's two.

No, that can't be right.

Aww!
I just gave myself a fright there.

It's the yaks.

Oh, is that...?
Oh, that's our toilet tent.

Oh, thank God for that.

Next morning,
Steve wants to find out

if last night's encounter

with a snow leopard

was as close as it felt.

So, he came in down here,

and you can see here

really clearly

the exact marks
where he's accelerated away.

Some more here, and they're all
scraping away as he sprinted off
up in this direction.

Again, really clear ones here.

And then he's gone.

So, I was five metres away
from a wild snow leopard.

I mean, look how close he was to me.

Despite his close encounter,
Steve must leave Tiger Mountain

without cast-iron proof that
tigers live up here.

Gang Chen Ta has held
on to its mysteries.

George is returning to the capital
to present the expedition's
findings to the Prime Minister.

The teams still lacks scientific
evidence of tigers
living at altitude,

even though the forest
looks like it could support them.

Wow, look at that pool.
That is spectacular.

I've seen some beautiful
places in my time,

but I don't think I've ever seen
anywhere on earth that rivals this.

A picture just can't grab this.

It's primeval.

Soaking it up,
because I might not be back.

What we're going to do is just
hang onto as much of this as we can.

For the largest surviving cat in
the world, and one so beautiful...

..Bhutan seems to be its last hope.

Because everywhere else, it's hunted
and poached and killed

for skin, for parts,
for cures of various sorts.

The thought that tigers could be gone

in 50 years...

..is, um...

It's just unthinkable.

Just one image
would prove they live up here

and could help secure their future.

Gordon's camera traps
are the team's last hope.

Oh, look at this bear.

Oh, sniffing the camera.

The camera traps
aren't always invisible.

He's a really healthy
specimen as well.

He'd have to be living up here,
it's going to get cold.

He's going to have to work hard.
It's only the strong that survive.

Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!

Oh, oh, I don't believe it!

Oh, God, oh!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Oh, gosh!

OK, they're here.

HE SOBS WITH EMOTION

You know, it's only one tiger, but
the fact that they can live here

is just so important, not just for
this one individual,

but for tigers in the wild
for the future.

It's just... Oh.

Oh, man.

It just walked along this path,

literally down this path.

If he was just passing through
this area, he would have his head
down just powering on through.

But he's scent-marking
quite high up on the rock

and what he's saying is, "This
is my place, this is where I live."

Finding tigers here is phenomenal,
because what it does -

it just shows that almost every
square mile from here down to India
is potential tiger habitat.

Gordon has found tigers at 3,000m
and he still has more cameras
to check

a vertical kilometre
higher up the mountain.

How high into the Himalayas
are tigers living?

45 images.

I wonder what that's of.

Oh!

Oh, man alive!

I'm just completely speechless.

Gordon's cameras
have captured over 30 images
of tigers walking along this ridge.

These tigers are living right in
the shadow of the high Himalayas.

We are above
4,000 metres at this point.

These are the highest-living tigers
in the world.

There are
at least two adult tigers here -

one male, one female.

You've got one tiger
that's walked through here,
scent-marked on that rock.

A second tiger...

big male, comes through in the day,
stops, sniffs.

We're watching possibly
the precursor
to tigers meeting and mating.

There's a female up here letting
the male know that she's around.

They've probably met
and mated by now,

and somewhere I really believe
there is a little cave

down in one of these valleys
that have tiger cubs in it.

Tigers breeding this high in the
Himalayas is totally new to science.

More importantly,
these animals could be central
to the tigers' survival.

If Bhutan stays the way that it is,
it just becomes a big machine that
produces tigers that will move out.

It is incredible,
just blows me away.

The expedition is coming to an end.

But George still has one
last important visit to make.

He's presenting the team's findings
to the Bhutanese Prime Minister.

The report shows
that the ancient Kingdom of Bhutan

holds a significant proportion
of the world's wild tigers.

It will be the heart of the tiger
corridor if governments across
the region can work together.

There is our brief preliminary
report...

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.
This should be very, very useful.

Tigers must be protected.

Tiger doesn't belong to us,
to this generation alone.

It belongs to future
generations as well.

Alan's plan to link
isolated tiger populations

and create the world's largest tiger
reserve is closer to reality.

This gives me hope.

This area holds the key

for the future of tigers,

hopefully, for the whole Himalayan
corridor, and could serve as a model
for the rest of the world.

The tiger corridor had a big missing
link in it, and Bhutan was that.

Nothing was known about
the tigers that may live here.

We have filled in
the final part of the puzzle.

People have pushed tigers
to the brink of extinction.

This is their last chance.

Can we save tigers?
Absolutely we can save tigers.

We will save tigers.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd