Original subtitles

ATTENBOROUGH: The Namib, the world's oldest desert.

Relentless and unforgiving.

No-one enters this world lightly.

The treacherous seas of the Skeleton Coast

barricade the entire length of the desert.

It's no wonder the Namib guards its secrets well.

Lions once lived here, but they were like phantoms,

hardly ever seen, let alone understood.

Then, more than 20 years ago, they were wiped out.

Today, one man is pitting himself against the desert,

driven by the belief

that these most extraordinary lions have started coming back.

The Namib desert is @ million square miles of wilderness.

Diamonds and garnets are here in abundance.

Much harder to find is a blade of grass.

A few scattered animals do live here,

but nothing like the great herds that normally support lions.

However, 10 years ago,

rumours surfaced that lions might have returned to the Namib.

Such a tantalising mystery attracted a scientist

with a rare combination of skills.

Dr Flip Stander's great passion is lions.

He studies them, tracks them and even thinks like them.

STANDER: That was a print. That was a print.

They definitely crouch down

and you can see the feet placement are very careful.

You can almost see the toes are sort of pressed in. It's like they're stretching.

And at this point, just after they get into the opening, they split up.

ATTENBOROUGH: For months, Flip found nothing but tracks.

This was a frustrating campaign

in a place where the heat is intense enough to crack rock.

Even oryx, the hardy desert specialists,

and the handful of giraffe that live here have a tough time.

It was to take months of patient tracking

before the elusive desert phantoms finally took shape.

He was able to put a radio collar on one lioness, then two.

But just following them seemed impossible.

The animals were shy and the boulder fields impassable,

a far cry from the Serengeti, where lions can be followed easily day and night.

Flip's best hope was to take to the air.

Even this was fraught in a landscape that dwarfs everything.

Eventually, the first two lions led to more.

Flip had made a momentous discovery.

There was a surviving pride of desert lions,

and it had found refuge in a remote canyon.

This was the first time that anyone had been able to get a really good look

at the world's most unusual lions.

It was clear from the start that their behaviour was out of the ordinary.

In the first three or four years,

1 documented the most outrageous growth rate.

It was in excess of 30% per annum,

and all really driven by four adult lionesses.

The only word to describe them would be like breeding machines,

because that's just what they were.

ATTENBOROUGH: Not only this.

More cubs were surviving to adulthood than elsewhere in Africa.

This once-beleaguered group of lions were staging an extraordinary comeback,

and it allowed them to fan out into areas

they hadn't been seen in for over 20 years.

In the last year,

Flip has followed some of them to the driest, most northerly part of the Namib,

where he's had his biggest breakthrough,

two very relaxed young lionesses that don't run away when he gets close.

Now at last he has an opportunity to really get to know some lions

and find out how they cope with desert life.

Their lives couldn't be more different from young lions in the Serengeti.

They're just 18 months old,

an age when most lion cubs rely on a pride to get them food.

Yet these youngsters are all alone.

They're heading for the spectacular Hoarusib Valley,

one of the dry rivers that cut across the Namib desert

from the mountains in the east to the Skeleton Coast in the west.

The Hoarusib acts as a highway for animals through hostile land.

It offers respite, too.

The valley benefits from rainfall hundreds of miles away.

Flash floods race through and then slowly evaporate,

leaving drinking water here and there.

There's enough damp ground for grass, even in the dry season,

which draws grazers like these oryx from all over the desert.

And that's why the young lions have been drawn to this valley.

It's the very best place to hunt.

However, oryx are large, with lethal horns.

But they aren't the only potential prey taking advantage of the Hoarusib's watering holes.

Donkeys are much easier to catch,

but killing one could spell disaster for the cubs.

The donkeys belong to the Himba and Herero people,

whose village, Purros, lies a few miles upriver.

They are worried by the lions' return.

No-one wants a large predator on their doorstep.

INTERPRETER: I had two donkeys, two pregnant donkeys.

Then a lion killed both of them.

Without my donkeys,

1 can't go and visit my daughter or my grandchildren any more.

ATTENBOROUGH: Raising livestock on such marginal land is tough.

The loss of cattle, their only cash in the bank,

could cause financial ruin.

(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

In the severe droughts of the 1980s,

desert lions killed hundreds of cows,

so the people shot every lion they could.

This is how desert lions were thought to have been wiped out first time around.

Can the people of Purros afford to be tolerant towards this new generation?

The cubs will be much safer if they learn to catch wild animals like oryx.

In the Serengeti, youngsters spend years watching how older lionesses tackle large prey.

However, it looks as though these cubs

will have to teach themselves through trial and error.

They begin the stalk like seasoned hunters,

using the scant cover to conceal themselves.

And they have to be incredibly quiet.

Oryx are spooked by the slightest sound.

One of the youngsters looks as though it's made a mistake.

It's broken cover.

Actually, very cleverly, it's pushing the oryx towards the other lion.

An oryx is quite capable of seeing off a lion,

as long as the antelope stands its ground and doesn't run.

But will the oryx keep its nerve?

(GRUNTS)

Finally, the youngsters lose heart.

Flip suspects that desert lions hunt

in a completely different way from lions on the savannah.

Without the backup of a large pride,

these youngsters have to learn to stalk more skilfully

and co-operate more effectively.

They certainly can't rely on their mother for support,

because right now she's 100 miles away.

Flip is really struggling to follow her.

She travels vast distances in a home range

that's 100 times bigger than those in the Serengeti.

She arrived here from the canyon refuge 10 years ago

as one of the first pioneers.

She's produced two litters of cubs,

and is currently travelling with her eldest daughter.

Flip has a soft spot for this lioness,

but she didn't endear herself to the people of Purros.

As a youngster, she killed several cows,

and the villagers demanded Flip relocate her.

Most had never even seen a lion,

so he decided to take her to the village, where there was uproar.

They had this lion now, in front of them.

These lions were causing them lots of trouble. They must kill it.

And I looked at the situation and I just gambled,

took a huge risk, and I stood back and I said, "Go, kill it."

Because 1 thought, if 1 interfere now

and really sort of try and dominate the situation,

it's gonna count against me and the lions in the long run.

And he pulled out his knife,

and I stood back and I just knew... I went cold.

1 didn't know what was gonna happen,

but I said, "If you wanna kill it, it's your lion. Kill it.”

ATTENBOROUGH: Some were fascinated by her and didn't agree.

After a fierce argument, the villagers said she could live on one condition.

As long as I monitor it and give them the information,

then they're happy with it.

So, with a huge sigh of relief, 1 got in the car and 1 motored out of there.

ATTENBOROUGH: Flip's gamble paid off,

but the lioness is hard to keep tabs on.

This year, he's got the chance to put a better tracking device on her.

(GUN FIRING)

(GROWLS)

The darting anaesthetic fails to work properly,

and Flip has to go out on a limb to give her a booster.

STANDER: Yeah, perfect.

ATTENBOROUGH: Unlike a simple radio device, this GPS collar

will record and store her position every two hours for the next nine months.

It will reveal what she gets up to during her long absences

when she vanishes into the desert.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

It's turning out to be an exceptional year in more ways than one.

It's the wettest in the Namib for 30 years.

Grazers and lions are doing well.

Flip reckons there are 80 to 100 lions scattered through the desert,

where only a handful was left just a decade ago.

There's a more relaxed atmosphere than the drought-ridden 1980s.

The trouble is that it's unlikely to last.

The desert constantly swings between extremes.

Lions that grow up in boom times

will find it much harder to survive the next drought.

(CAWING)

If extreme drought were to return to the Hoarusib Valley,

the pied crows would be the least of the youngsters' concerns.

The harder it is to find food,

the more tempted they might be to kill livestock,

and that could lead to their deaths.

Flip believes there is an alternative source of food in the drought.

It's fixed and predictable, if they can find it.

To do that, the youngsters would have to cross miles

of scorching, wind-blasted sands to the coast.

However, lions have made this journey before and this was their reward.

The seal colony at Cape Fria.

Extraordinarily, in 1976,

a pride of 14 desert lions was observed here feeding on a seal carcass.

And it was this predation on seals that was a turning point in Flip's life.

My first experience with the desert lions was on the beach,

seeing a lion feeding on a seal carcass.

And the impression that that left with me was just incredible.

And that's lasted for 25 years.

ATTENBOROUGH: When the lions were wiped out in the 1980s,

the knowledge of this food source was lost.

Today, Flip's special female and her youngsters are the nearest lions to Cape Fria.

He hopes they'll rediscover it soon.

This is what I'm picturing. I'm picturing that little group

arriving on this beach in the middle of the night, hunting.

And they take one look at this and they say, "This is... We've got this sorted.”

(SEALS BARKING)

ATTENBOROUGH: The sea is rich in fish,

so the seals will be here year in, year out.

The colony could cushion the lion family from the boom-bust nature of desert life.

It could be their salvation.

For now, the cubs are too timid to venture very far,

and the Hoarusib Valley provides everything they need.

Flip has been following them for three months,

but only rarely does he have the chance to witness a hunt.

They've used the cover of night to outwit an oryx.

For the two youngsters, this is no mean achievement.

For Flip, it's a chance to learn how their hunting skills are developing,

but first he has to wait until the cubs have had their fill.

With a meal like this, they should be able to take life easy.

But one of the lions can't stop those crows from getting under her skin.

(CAWING)

(CROWS CAWING)

(CROWS CAWING)

(GROWLS)

(GROWLS)

Two days later, Flip can get to work.

He wants to test his theory that desert lions

have to be more cunning and patient than savannah lions.

This must have been an incredibly slow period of the stalk

because this substrate, it's all...

It's really crackly.

And so, for her to have been stalking here, she would have had to be really careful.

Because that weight she would have had would have cracked.

She probably takes like five minutes to put that foot down.

Just slowly, more pressure, more pressure,

balancing on the others, and then eventually going.

This stretch of about 50 metres... It probably could have taken an hour. Easily.

She clearly didn't have a good hold

on the oryx, because her angle wasn't all that good,

but the second lioness

had now charged from her position,

and she came bounding up this embankment

and basically hit the gemsbok with such force...

The struggle was enormous, because even with the two lionesses on it,

the gemsbok still didn't go down.

You can see where these bite marks...

when they grabbed it under the throat.

If it were the adult lionesses,

there wouldn't have been such an enormous struggle,

because they would pull it down much quicker.

So they had a struggle on their hands, and the evidence is there.

ATTENBOROUGH: The way in which they work together is impressive.

These youngsters are becoming an efficient team.

A month later, and the cubs are still living on their own.

In the desert, this seems to be normal.

Many of the lions seem to live in ones or twos,

but this doesn't mean they're not part of a pride.

Family ties may be as strong here.

The relationships are just long-distance ones.

This is borne out when one day, after a six-month absence,

Mum and older sister show up.

The affectionate exchange of greetings

is proof that these four lionesses are a functioning pride,

one that's more fluid and open than the tightly knit family groups

of the Serengeti.

It's a touching reunion, but it creates tension in the valley.

Now all four lions are close to Purros and livestock.

Flip has found that lions can rise to most of the challenges of desert life.

The biggest obstacle to their success is people.

(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

(CATTLE MOOING)

But if the Himba and Herero are to accept lions in their neighbourhood,

they have to change their traditional way of life.

To an extent, this is already happening.

Some of them no longer want the struggle of raising cows on marginal land.

Their children would make a far easier and better living as tourist guides.

The young lions can have a vital role to play

if local people see them as money-spinners

rather than as livestock-killers.

Some communities have formed conservancies

to profit from the wildlife on their land.

Flip is starting to act as a go-between,

matching the needs of villagers, lions and tour operators.

Tourists would pay good money to see lions in this amazing setting.

The income could help compensate for any livestock killed.

Ironing out the details is difficult,

and until any scheme gets off the ground,

the lions of the Hoarusib aren't safe.

A mere five days after their family reunion,

the cubs are back on their own,

and this time Mum has left them in a new place,

the feldspar plain south of the Hoarusib Valley.

It's unfamiliar, but at least there's no livestock here to lure them into trouble.

The heavy rain earlier in the year

means there's more grass on the plain than normal,

and more oryx.

That doesn't mean hunting is all that easy out here.

The ground is so open

that the best chance for these two naive youngsters

may still lie with the coming of night.

The cubs are getting good at this.

This time, the smell of meat has attracted a hyena.

In most other places in Africa, this means trouble.

There would soon be a whole clan of spotted hyenas trying to push them off their kill.

(CROWS CAWING)

There are no such clans in the Namib.

The brown hyenas here are solitary,

so lions have very little competition,

and that's why the youngsters can be left to their own devices at such an early age.

The hyena will merely hang around till the cubs decide to leave.

(GROWLING)

At just over two years old, the cubs are much more confident.

Even their play has a rougher edge.

Desert life is good for lions,

and the returning lions are also good for the life of the desert.

Flip is going in search of the youngsters' mother.

She's been wearing the collar for nine months

and the battery is beginning to fail.

He needs to find her fast.

(BEEPING)

Finally, he picks up her signal in a river valley to the south of the Hoarusib.

The detailed tracking information stored in the high-tech collar

will throw light on her movements,

crucial data to help protect her family

and the entire desert lion population.

(DART GUN FIRES)

Darting is a necessary intrusion,

though Flip never takes it lightly.

And for him, getting this close to lions never loses its magic.

She's beautiful.

The GPS collar, it's the first time 1 touch it.

For nine months it's been on this lioness, this whole time,

and it is still working.

The LED light is still going. You can see it.

So it's been storing all this incredible information

for the last nine months.

This girl, she's the queen.

She's the queen of them all.

1 know, this is by far my most favourite and special lioness.

Look, she's hardcore. She takes no nonsense.

And she lives it on the edge.

Okay, well, now, we have to look at your teeth

to see if you are still in good nick.

Man, look at that. Isn't that beautiful?

Goodness!

Look at that.

Sorry.

Man.

Sorry, my dear. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Just have a look at the claws.

Oh, they're sharp, eh? Look at that.

My goodness, it's like a needle.

Oh, especially the forefinger and the middle finger.

Oh, it's just really, really sharp.

Now, the most amazing thing is,

their feet just smell so amazing.

It's got the nicest smell to it.

Mmm. Sort of musky.

Just a really... Like a sweet, sweet sort of musky smell.

Now, what an awesome feeling, to be so close.

Okay.

You be good.

ATTENBOROUGH: He quickly discovers

that his favourite lioness isn't just in good condition,

she's become really smart.

This is what... This is incredible.

It means that this is... Her movement is back and forth.

Back to Purros.

She's back, right in Purros.

Three past Purros.

And then she spent...

In the early morning, between midnight and the morning,

and then all the way back again.

ATTENBOROUGH: It's a great sign.

She's proving she can live right under people's noses

without causing them any trouble at all.

When I see this, I want to have a GPS collar on every lion

because that information is just phenomenal.

The following morning, there's a rare chance to watch these elusive lions for a little longer.

But it's a bittersweet moment.

Flip's aware that until all the local people support the return of the lions,

his favourite lioness will never be safe.

News from the Hoarusib Valley gives him even more concern.

The youngsters have found their way back.

Unlike their mother, they haven't had time to work out

how to steer clear of people and livestock.

And this time, they're exploring upriver, towards Purros.

Just five miles from the village, they head into big trouble.

(BRAYING)

Donkeys have been bred to be docile,

and they have no instinct of how to escape.

(BRAYING)

(BRAYING)

No animal has a concept of restraint,

predators least of all.

(BRAYING)

(BRAYING)

These last 45 minutes could be their undoing,

and it puts Flip in a really awkward position.

He doesn't want the cubs killed,

but keeps to his promise to inform the village.

These two young lions are very important to your conservancy.

But if these lions kill any of your livestock,

you know you can shoot them if they cause problems.

(MAN INTERPRETING)

And it is not for me to say or ask for you not to shoot them.

That's your decision.

And all I'm saying to you is, before people shoot them,

if they kill livestock, you've got to think very carefully.

Those two lions were born here. They are used to this area,

and that's very valuable.

ATTENBOROUGH: The lions have a lucky break.

Since the donkeys were living wild,

the community decides to be lenient this time.

However, a lot of people in Purros are twitchy,

and the lions don't help matters by remaining close to the village.

As night falls, the situation turns into a crisis.

The cubs head straight towards the village.

(TRACKER BEEPING)

This could be disastrous for the cubs,

dangerous for the people

and jeopardise everything Flip's worked so hard for.

So much is at stake

that Flip even enlists help from a local tourist lodge.

1 think you should drive past us now,

and you go back to the village, Purros,

and you go tell the people

that the lions are lying here and we're watching them very carefully.

And tell them if they come anywhere close to the village,

we'll dart them, just so that they know

and see that it's not just us sort of favouring the lions at their expense.

God, this lioness is flicking her tail a lot.

Just look at her now, she's gonna...

Stalking each other.

ATTENBOROUGH: The lions are just a quarter of a mile from the village,

when Flip decides to intervene.

By broadcasting a lion roar, he hopes the cubs will be distracted.

(LION ROAR PLAYING ON SPEAKER)

Okay, just tell us when they leave.

WOMAN ON RADIO: Both running downriver.

Okay, we're done. Let's go.

Everything's done?

ATTENBOROUGH: At first, it's not clear whether his plan is working.

STANDER: It looks like they're turning around and coming back into the river.

I'm just watching them carefully. I can barely see them.

So I'll get back to you when I know.

ATTENBOROUGH: Thankfully, as the cubs turn back down the river

and away from the village,

Flip can relax.

Even so, he stays with them until he's sure they're well out of danger.

STANDER: Watch. Watch, watch.

(ROARING)

ATTENBOROUGH: The next day is like a new beginning.

Not only have the cubs left Purros behind,

they've travelled a long way downriver, farther than ever before.

They're exploring the dunes and rocky cliffs

just seven miles from the coast.

This desert has so much to offer them.

Elsewhere in Africa, lions are hemmed in by national park boundaries.

But here, in one of the continent's last great wildernesses,

there's still plenty of room to expand.

(GROWLS)

It's been a long journey to get this far,

but now Flip dares to think big.

One day, he hopes lions will be established

down the entire length of the Skeleton Coast,

from Angola to South Africa.

STANDER: Knowing that lions can survive and live in the northern Namib desert,

1 think that's what really drives me.

But being here and being present to observe lions

come to a beautiful area like this

would make me smile for the rest of my life.

ATTENBOROUGH: These animals have been a revelation to Flip.

The desert has shaped their behaviour and social structure

in extraordinary ways.

They're so lean, fit and smart

that, quite simply, these are the most beautiful lions he's ever seen.

If lions and people can learn to live alongside each other,

the big cats will have found one of the best,

and certainly their most unique sanctuary

in the whole of Africa.