Original subtitles

GILLIAN BURKE: The Nsefu pride is the perfect lion family.

New cubs with two devoted mothers.

Two loyal fathers to guard them...

But they've got teenagers

and that spells trouble.

Turning from cubs into killers isn't easy.

They must learn how to hunt

and how to find their independence

while staying loyal to their family.

Teenage mistakes can have terrible consequences.

They face betrayal,

isolation

and death.

Theirs is a journey into adulthood

through the trials and tribulations of teenage pride.

It's dawn

and the Nsefu pride relaxes after a busy night's hunting.

The Nsefu lions are led by two dominant males in their prime.

At the heart of the pride are five adult females

and six new cubs, born to two litters.

Everyone dotes on the new arrivals.

Everyone,

except the teenagers.

They have their own problems.

There are seven of them,

ranging from one to three years old,

mostly sub-adult males.

Like all teenagers,

they face the difficult transition to maturity,

but these adolescents are lucky.

Their 25 square mile territory is on the Luangwa River,

the best lion real estate in the area.

Born eight weeks ago,

the new cubs are now old enough to hang out with the pride,

and even the two big males spend time with them.

The previous year's young are all ignored.

So they've formed a gang.

These adolescents are, in human terms, of school age.

(GROWLING)

They have their own teacher, an older sister.

Though already adult size,

she's still young and playful.

Life was perfect

until the six new cubs came along

and stole the show.

The mothers have their hands full now

and pay little attention to their older offspring.

Aunts and a grandmother

are increasingly losing patience.

Of the seven teenagers,

four are male, now with the first sign of manes.

Three of these are brothers.

In their few years left with the pride,

they have a lot to learn.

Their big sister, their teacher,

makes sure they keep up.

There's a lot of land for dozy adolescents to get lost in.

Now it's time to join the pride for breakfast.

The hungry teenagers are allowed at meals

as long as they join the back of the queue.

The new cubs are treated like royalty,

and even steal the big males' meals.

(SNARLING)

The mothers need extra food to make milk for the cubs.

The males are grumpy about having to share.

(GROWLING)

One antelope, stolen from a leopard,

doesn't go far.

The aunts try to eat their share discretely,

until the teenage gang finds them...

...and forgets their manners.

The hungry youngsters often break the rules of the pride.

(GROWLING)

The big males send the adolescents packing.

The most important survival skill

the youngsters can learn is to hunt,

and it's time for class.

The pride's favorite food is buffalo.

The 1,000-strong herd comes to the river most days to drink.

But each is half a ton of power

with lion-killing horns and hooves.

The elder sister, their teacher,

selects a safer target for demonstration.

Hunting needs more work.

The three brothers are 18 months old

and will be allowed to stay with the pride

for maybe two years more,

but then, they'll be on their own.

Hippos retreat to the river by day,

but come on land at night to graze.

Baby hippos are a regular meal,

but adults are huge, much bigger than buffalo,

with 12-inch long teeth and bad tempers.

This morning, the teenage gang has one trapped

and is blocking its route back to the river.

Potential predator and potential prey

fight a battle of wills.

The young lions try intimidation...

...while the hippo slinks off round the back.

The chatter of brightly-colored birds

distracts the hungry teens.

A colony of carmine bee-eaters nests in the riverbank.

Their burrows extend six feet or more into the soft sand.

Lions aren't born knowing what's best to eat,

and whether these birds might make a meal.

The years spent learning how to be a lion

may be the most difficult and least understood of a lion's life.

(SQUAWKING)

Lions are meant to be nocturnal,

active at night,

but they're teenagers.

(HIPPO SNORTING)

The hippos are braving the land to feed.

They graze and eat fallen fruit through the night.

For hungry lions, three tons of slow-moving meat

is just asking for trouble.

This time, if they work together,

so many lions should be able to take on one hippo.

Yet the hippo is more intimidating than they are.

The hippo's sheer bulk is their protection,

as are their massive teeth,

trampling feet and belligerent courage.

Teenage lions have attitude, too,

and they spar with the hippos, like matadors with bulls.

For the lions, it's part game and part lesson.

Experienced lions rarely hunt adult hippos,

they're too dangerous,

but the teenagers keep trying.

They'll eventually learn to look for calves,

or injured adults, which are easier prey.

After taunting the hippos,

the big sister leads the class inland.

Hunting antelope requires specialist teamwork,

and they practice most nights.

They spread out.

The idea is to drive an impala or a puku into an ambush.

Antelope are faster than lions,

and they work together, too, alarm calling.

(ANTELOPE SQUEAKING)

It's time for the teens to test their strategy.

Lions assign themselves different jobs in the hunt.

Some become wingers, left or right.

Others, part of the charge, or the ambush.

Once a lion learns its job,

it'll eventually fulfill that role

in each hunt for the rest of its life.

These teenagers are working out what their jobs are.

The three brothers coordinate well,

but they've not caught anything yet.

The elder sister drives a puku straight towards them...

...but they miss the ambush.

Behind the younger brother, there's one of the cubs,

lost and alone.

(MEWING)

The cub's terrified.

There are leopards and hyenas around,

and he latches on to the teenagers.

They stop hunting.

The rest of the pride can't be far away.

But the cub's older siblings may not give him the safety he seeks.

Teenagers play rough.

There's still resentment towards the cubs.

Jealousies within a family are normal.

Before the cubs came along,

life was better,

and now they wait at the back of the queue.

(MEWING RAPIDLY)

Adolescents have many conflicting instincts.

They recognize their little brother,

he's one of the family.

But lion males are cub killers,

an instinct needed for when they take over a pride.

Just as the game looks like being the cub's last,

his mother appears.

(MEWING)

(LIONESS GROWLING)

The teenagers want their plaything back.

(GROWLING)

(GROWLING)

The cub is battered, confused and lucky to be alive.

Reprimanded,

the adolescent gang heads back to the pride.

There's a rumbling, like distant thunder. (RUMBLING)

Stampeding buffalo.

The professional hunters, the lionesses, are at work.

It's a big opportunity for the teenagers to prove themselves.

The strategy for hunting buffalo is different to antelope.

Buffalo are like tanks, well armored.

The lions must attack from behind.

(GRUNTING)

The buffalo is strong and can wheel around,

slashing with his horns, lashing out with his hooves.

(GRUNTING)

He tramples and kicks one of the yearlings.

The pride closes in, but the teenagers aren't strong enough.

A horn catches the elder sister in the groin.

(GROWLING IN PAIN)

The lions' desperate attempts to hang on to the buffalo

become increasingly dangerous and futile.

One by one, the lions peel off.

Teeth and claws aren't enough.

It takes experience as well as courage,

and knowing when to back down.

Rumps bleeding, but heads held high,

the buffalo head back to their herd.

Following them, unwilling to give up,

are the three brothers.

The rest of the pride leaves them to it.

The three brothers follow the buffalo herd all night,

out of the pride's territory.

But after a few hours, they've lost the buffalo,

and their pride.

The pride's two dominant males

return from defending their kingdom

to find their family depleted and injured.

The mothers are fine, they backed off early in the hunt.

Four juveniles are missing,

three brothers and a yearling.

One of the other adolescents' leg is bleeding.

Injuries are common.

One of the adult males has even cut his eye, but that's minor.

But his daughter,

the teenagers' elder sister and teacher, is badly hurt.

It's her left hind leg.

She's fortunate to have the pride.

Solitary cats, like leopards, starve when they can't hunt.

Most wounds heal quickly.

There's no blood

and she'll probably recover with a few days' rest.

But the trampled yearling

is not so lucky.

A moment of teenage bravado

has caused fatal internal injuries.

Courage alone is no match for a half-ton of buffalo.

The night's injury list grows longer.

The lost and found cub can barely walk.

The teenagers were rough.

He looks for comfort from his mother...

(MEWING)

...but she rejects him.

(GROWLING)

The pride can't look after a cub that isn't able keep up.

Her instinct is harsh, but it's for the sake of the other healthy cubs.

One night of teenage havoc

has devastated the whole pride.

The two adult males don't stick around to help.

They often split up to patrol their borders

and cover more territory.

It's the height of the dry season,

and each lion pride controls sections

of a few miles of river, the only water around.

The lions hardly ever venture out of their territory,

in case they meet their rival neighbors.

Yet, on this morning, beyond the pride boundary,

are the three teenage brothers,

on their own for the first time.

At 18 months old, they are too young to leave the pride,

yet the instincts for independence are stirring.

They head out in search of breakfast.

They have a swagger, a confidence.

This is the beginning of a great adventure.

One is the born leader, and he keeps an eye on the other two.

He waits for them.

The hippo carcass is days old

and thin pickings.

The leader lets the younger two find what they can.

A foot doesn't have much meat, just skin and gristle.

They should be careful,

their stomachs aren't accustomed to rotting carcasses.

But it's something they may need to get used to.

Like many teenage boys, they're prone to fighting.

(GROWLING)

But sibling rivalry could tear the coalition apart,

and they must learn to support each other.

(GROWLING CONTINUES)

Their survival is at stake.

The leader just moves on and they have to follow.

It's October,

and South Luangwa National Park

is waiting for the rains.

These 3,000 square miles of wilderness

have been eaten bare.

The grass has gone.

This is now a land of hunger.

All life is concentrated along the banks

of the dwindling Luangwa River.

Drawn by the only water, a lone lioness, a nomad.

Life without a pride is harsh.

Single lions can scrape by for years,

eking out a existence, hiding and starving.

Rainstorms are on their way,

but for this nomad, it's probably too late.

The three brothers are tense, staring intently.

A few hundred yards away is a small pride of lions,

their neighbors.

This family looks different, battle-scarred.

Their life is tougher.

There are two adult females

and several older adolescents, like the brothers.

This is a hardened pride from the wrong end of town.

But that's not what the brothers are staring at.

There's a familiar face here.

Their own father.

One of the two Nsefu pride males

has a second family, across the tracks.

It's unusual,

but here, the park has a shortage of adult males

due to trophy hunting outside the reserve.

As the brothers watch, he greets the other pride's adolescents.

He's clearly their father, too.

They are a little older than the three brothers.

This must have been going on for years.

Cuts and scars tell of a hard life.

Small prides do less well,

pushed into lower-grade areas.

The three brothers from Nsefu

remain still until all the other lions have left.

Confused, their confidence gone,

they nuzzle for reassurance.

One of the brothers isn't feeling at all well.

Maybe it's the effect of the rotten hippo.

But in many animals,

emotional upset can have the same results, too.

(ROARING)

Juveniles rarely roar,

but when they do, it's often full of meaning

about their pride...

(ROARING)

...their alliances and strengths.

It's about who they are.

They are three teenage runaways,

adventurers,

figuring out how the world works on their own.

A few days later,

the big male returns to the Nsefu pride as if nothing's wrong.

This is his main family.

We can't know what he thinks and feels,

nor understand a lion's guilty secrets,

but scientists say that many animals deceive each other

and hide the truth from their rivals or mates.

It's a very ancient betrayal.

The cubs are all there, including the one that was rejected.

He's fine now, just a bit smaller than the rest.

His mother finally relented.

Ignored in the past by his mother and brothers,

the lucky survivor

is forging a special relationship with his father.

Five of the cubs are male

and could form a formidable team in two or three years,

eventually becoming caring fathers themselves.

The falling river shrinks the hippo pools.

The territorial males aren't happy

with their newly-confined quarters.

If the dominant hippo doesn't get you, the crocs may.

Injuries are inevitable.

Under cover of darkness, a wounded hippo retreats to the bank.

With luck, darkness and dense bush would hide him.

But he comes face-to-face with the Nsefu mothers and doesn't stand a chance.

The big male takes charge of the feast.

An adult hippo is a huge meal, more than enough for them all,

yet there's an unusual tension.

(GROWLING)

A big croc tries to join them.

It's too dangerous, even for him.

(GROWLING)

By morning,

the cause of the aggression becomes clear.

Here, with their father,

are two adolescents from the pride next door.

The Nsefu mothers are the most upset.

(GROWLING)

The male has turned up with the wrong teenagers.

He's brought two illegitimate adolescents instead,

expecting them to be fed.

It's like the most awkward Thanksgiving dinner.

The uninvited guests are tough, with no manners.

They don't know teenagers should join the back of the queue

and not talk back.

The mothers' building anger becomes more evident.

The two intruding adolescents are outnumbered

and in serious danger.

They have to leave right now.

The Nsefu mothers follow, looking intent on revenge.

The teenagers turn on a mother.

All five Nsefu females arrive.

The big male tries to contain things...

(ROARING)

...and is turned on.

He puts himself between the mothers and the two interlopers.

Then, in a display of rightful bloodline,

the teenagers nuzzle their father farewell.

The two exit the only way they can,

through the crocodiles.

The crossing is the fastest escape route,

but it terrifies the teenagers.

They've met their father's main family.

Maybe they too thought they were the only ones.

It seems everyone's feelings are hurt.

The Nsefu mothers are still spoiling for a fight.

The neighboring adolescents

return home unharmed and well fed.

The Nsefu pride is fractured by hostility and betrayal.

The growing tension extends beyond the lion pride.

Other animals become desperate in the final days of the dry season.

(TRUMPETING)

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

(RAIN FALLING)

Once the rains come,

the antelope can drink anywhere

and move away from the river in the hope of better grass.

The lions must now search further afield for their food.

In these tough times,

they can't wait for the three missing teenagers to come back.

The young cubs have no choice but to try to keep up.

The buffalo head out beyond the pride's boundary.

Far from bringing life, the storms empty the lions' world.

The territory is a deserted sea of mud.

The hippos, at least, are happy.

It takes a few weeks, but life returns.

Grass grows

and the fresh flush is richest around the river.

The antelope return.

Mud, churned by buffalo and baked dry,

transforms into lush lagoons.

For the cubs, it's a new world.

They've only known dusty plains.

The little cub injured by the teenagers

is now hard to tell apart from his brothers.

The big males are spending more time protecting their youngest heirs.

(ROARING)

The mothers join with the males in roaring, to proclaim their pride.

The only ones missing are the three brothers.

They haven't seen them since the buffalo hunt.

Then, one day,

one appears.

Following him, the other two.

They are back, looking surprisingly well.

They are welcomed as part of the family.

The whole pride is together again.

The three brothers have learned a lot on their adventure

and are ready for their next chapter.

It's a new season,

a new beginning

for all the lions of the Nsefu pride.

♪♪

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