Original subtitles

Filming begins on Disneynature's cinematic release, Born in China.

Disneynature's most ambitious film yet.

This is a country that holds many wildlife secrets.

Home to a remarkable number of rarely-seen animals

and remote wildernesses that only a handful of film crews

have been fortunate enough to get access to.

The film will capture the landscapes of China and the creatures that live here.

Iconic animals will be filmed as they raise their families

through their first months of life.

But the greatest challenge of all

is an attempt to accomplish the near-impossible.

An international team of filmmakers are about to embark on a mission

to try and film the intimate story of a snow leopard family,

one of the most beautiful and elusive creatures on the planet,

in a feat never achieved before.

That's a big cat. Damn.

I'm climbing the mountain

to see if there's any track.

Film crew nil. Cat one.

Hey, we'll just go again tomorrow. We'll try again tomorrow.

The snow leopard team are three days into a 10-day, 2,000-mile journey

to their high-altitude filming location.

Just getting there is a formidable adventure.

The team leave from Beijing, the capital of China.

The first leg of the journey involves flying to Yushu,

their first high-altitude stop at over 12,000 feet above sea level.

The remaining 250 miles by road, up to over 16,000 feet,

will take a week and will be much trickier.

Now at over 13,000 feet, the team hit the road to their final destination.

But after every 1,600 feet gained in altitude,

they must rest for 24 hours to keep altitude sickness at bay.

Traveling over 16,000 feet is an expedition

that must be taken seriously.

Altitude sickness can be deadly.

We just passed 4,600 meters

and the air is definitely getting thinner up here.

I can feel it when I get out of the car and run around a little bit.

I think we're doing all right, though.

But we definitely need to keep an eye

on how everyone's reacting to the elevation here.

Shane is the team's director of photography.

Used to tough adventures in mountains and a brilliant animal tracker,

he's dreamt of having the chance to film snow leopards for years.

Is it normal for people to get sick when they come up here?

If somebody come from the lower place then they get a headache.

And very difficult to eat food and then difficult to walk.

If you stay then maybe you can die.

Sonam is a local guide and mechanic,

his humor infectious to the team.

They journey on,

the long road made no easier by repeated stops.

We just had a puncture on the road. The road is getting a bit bumpier.

Ed is one of the team's field directors.

He's managed wildlife film crews in remote regions all over the world.

The stones are obviously quite sharp up here.

It's just one more reminder as we go to our final destination

that we have to be very careful.

And we rely completely on the equipment that we've got

and the decisions that we make.

Yeah, I worry about the film crew.

If they get sick, it might get very serious.

Dondrub is a Buddhist monk who's traveled extensively in this area.

He's one of the few people to have seen snow leopards

in this part of China.

It's hard to recover from cold in high altitude.

We have a doctor with us and we have a lot of medicines.

We have also an oxygen tank,

which would be very helpful if anyone gets sick.

Finally, after 2,000 miles and nearly two weeks of flights,

adapting to the altitude and isolated roads,

the crew arrives in snow leopard territory.

Just around the next few corners will be our camp site.

They are the first international film crew ever

to reach this remote location.

Ten days to get here,

to acclimate to the elevation, but we made it.

Sanjiangyuan, in northwest China,

the heart of China's snow leopard habitat,

is chosen as the filming location.

At almost 400,000 square kilometers, it protects not only snow leopards

but is also the starting point for three of the world's mightiest rivers,

the Yangtze, Yellow and Mekong.

The world's highest wetland provides water for more than a billion people.

A truly vast landscape

almost the size of California,

dwarfing the entire British Isles

and home to the largest nature reserve in China.

This is a remote, daunting location,

but China has about 60% of the total snow leopard habitat on Earth

and the largest number of wild snow leopards on the planet.

But getting more than a brief glimpse of these ghosts of the mountains

is all but impossible.

Due to their extreme altitude and remote home,

few film crews have taken on the challenge.

No one has achieved the hours of footage needed to make a movie.

The cats are just too hard to find.

To succeed,

this team will need endurance, dedication and perseverance

in spades.

Their mission, not just to film snow leopards,

but to capture what life is like for a family of them

and tell their story for the very first time.

Here's our little part of the world.

I've never worked in a place where the mountains don't have names,

the rivers apparently don't even have names.

Amongst this vast landscape,

the team find the perfect base next to a monastery.

Everyone is excited about the adventure ahead.

Living a couple hundred kilometers from the nearest city,

a two-day round trip means meticulous planning

for the crew to survive.

Without a working generator, there would be no power.

Whenever possible, natural resources are used.

The team find a spring where they can source water

for cooking and drinking.

A toilet is dug in the frozen earth.

Stoves and coal are brought in to keep everyone warm.

When the coal gets wet, piles of yak dung are used.

It's amazing how reliant you become on the fire up here.

The warmth and... It's the first moment it's gone out and everyone's distraught.

Need to get this fire going.

Staying in a house with no insulated walls when the outside temperature

is almost minus 20 is as cold as living in a domestic freezer.

Although very basic living conditions,

they are hugely appreciated by an international team

working in one of the highest and harshest locations on Earth.

-It's to the right. -Exactly.

The snow leopard challenge is on.

The team get up in the freezing darkness before dawn.

With little proof of exactly where the snow leopards are,

they set out to look for any evidence they can of a big cat.

When searching for any predator,

finding its prey is a great first step.

There are at least five groups of blue sheep

with between 10 and 40 individuals in each herd.

I think that's quite a lot of prey for a snow leopard,

if it did decide to live around here.

But they're still so hard to find.

Brown cat in a brown landscape.

It's very difficult.

Ben is one of the team's field directors.

He's worked all over China,

from its highest mountains to remotest forests.

It's probably extremely likely that there's one watching me now.

But I'm not going to be able to see it.

Slightly unnerving.

Yeah, and it's cold.

And it's 16,000 feet up.

This might be a great habitat for snow leopards,

but finding them, let alone filming them, is a whole new challenge.

Up here in the thin air, where it's exhausting just to walk 10 yards,

excitement quickly turns to realization.

It's a sobering reminder of the enormity of the task ahead.

There are lots of signs from the various wild animals around here,

some of which will be snow leopards.

And then scattered around are

bones, skulls of blue sheep, the prey of the snow leopard.

So there's lots of signs here.

And so, although we haven't seen a snow leopard in the flesh,

we've seen almost everything but.

To make any success of this,

the film crew has to try and get the local yak herders

that live here on their side.

Yak are the equivalent of cattle,

essential to human life here.

The herders are masters of their environment,

and living here year around,

they are a good source for any scraps of information there might be

about the cats.

The perfect chance to break the ice comes soon after arriving at camp.

Well, we found a baby yak beside the road in a very dangerous place,

probably about to get eaten by predators,

and we tracked down the owners.

Yeah.

For its human owner, the yak is beyond value.

They're a source of food, drink, clothes and shoes.

So important are they, the families here give them individual names

like they do their children.

It's very cute.

Amazingly, just minutes before, we saw a golden eagle

eating a young baby animal.

We saw foxes in the area.

So, I'm very happy that this guy survived.

He wouldn't have lasted much longer.

Plus it's hailing, it's cold, and he needs to go home.

So we roll up to this house

and tell them we want one of them to come with us, jump in.

We can't communicate with them.

And the result is, our baby yak is saved.

The crew have reunited this family with their most prized possession.

So the baby yak is back with his family, it's in a warm place.

And our treat is getting to see these amazing people in their home.

And they gave us yak tea and some great bread and some meat.

And it's a big ol' time.

This act of kindness will go a long way to cement relations

with the locals who have snow leopard experiences to share.

With these stories fresh in their minds,

it's time for the team to bring out the technology.

In remote regions where helicopters can't reach,

drones are a great way of filming vast landscapes from the air.

Shane has spent many months designing and building this drone,

specifically adapted to fly at extreme altitude.

It also offers the team further clues as to where the snow leopards might be.

Any well-worn paths or caves could be visited by the cats

and will be easier to spot from the air.

With a much better idea of the lay of the land,

the team turn to their next bit of technology,

camera traps.

Yeah, it's based on the Panasonic GH4, the new 4K SLRs.

All the electronics for controlling the triggers,

picking up the signals from the sensors, are in the lid here and...

I love the color.

And how many of these do we have?

Yeah, we've got eight. So, we can spread these far and wide

and hopefully cover a lot of ground with them.

Dave is a remote camera trap expert.

He helped design the cameras that will go into the field.

It's a huge landscape. How do we know where to put them, I guess is the...

Yeah, if you just looked at the math, you'd give up

'cause even the smaller territories of a female are, you know,

40 kilometers at a minimum.

And you need to find the exact place, probably within a foot,

to have that cat in that kind of range. And, of course, the males have

territories that are three or four times that size.

But don't look at it that way

because they are somewhat predictable and they'll funnel through

these valleys and work the bases of cliffs, so I think you can do it.

Yeah.

These state of the art 4K camera traps could be left in the field for days

to hopefully capture images of snow leopards without disturbing them.

So we found this... What looks like a great place for a camera trap.

You can see how nice it is.

Animal trails come here between the frozen river and the rock there.

Reckon it's gonna be a good place for a camera trap,

but the problem is this river.

It was frozen a week ago

and is now already melting, as you can see from the heat.

James, we're gonna have to work out how to cross it.

Yeah.

-You wanna go first? -Sure.

Let's go.

He's going first.

James, the team's field assistant, is a bit more confident

about any potential risks than Ben.

Jump up and down.

Okay?

All right, we're gonna go for it.

Don't break, ice.

Please, please.

Don't break, ice.

There's actually some snow leopard hair in here,

so this must be a real important scent post for them coming through here.

I mean, there's a couple in here.

They may even be fresh, so this is gonna be an exciting spot.

We'll set it up and come back in a few days,

see if we can get our ghost on camera.

So at the moment we're just trying to set the focus in such a way

that as the light conditions change,

the focus point remains somewhere relevant in the image

so that hopefully when our leopard comes through the shot,

he'll be nice and sharp

and we'll get a really good image of him.

These are our sensors, they're passive infrared.

There's a little infrared beam that comes out of here.

And hopefully as soon as the leopard walks past it,

this will send a signal to the trap and set our cameras recording.

-Happy with that? -Yeah.

Great.

It's hazardous work,

not helped by unpredictable and dangerous weather.

Jacky, a member of the camera team, needs to set this camera trap quick.

Up here at over 16,000 feet,

electrical storms appear out of nowhere.

Getting caught in them can be life-threatening.

During a storm,

lightning can strike at any time and anywhere up here.

And out in the open, three miles up, Jacky could get hit.

That was scary. Oh, God.

Over the next few weeks,

the team put all their time and energy placing the camera traps

in a desperate bid to find out where the snow leopard territories are

in this vast landscape.

The equivalent of searching for a needle in a haystack.

Every few days, the camera trap recordings are retrieved...

-Do you want to sit in the hot seat? -No, go for it, Ed.

Okay, well, let's...

...to see if there are any hits.

-Actually a pretty nice image. -Yeah.

But no snow leopards are spotted.

You'd think a few weeks, a cat would walk by.

The camera traps were checked and rechecked endlessly.

Then one day...

The team's first snow leopard on camera.

Great.

And it's not just one, another cat follows behind.

-All right. -Sweet.

Snow leopards are mainly solitary creatures.

To film one is astonishing.

For it to have company, incredible.

It's definitive proof the cats are here.

There's now a real sense of the team being able to get into position

to film the cats on the main camera.

Do you guys wanna drive around to the west?

Might want to drive around to the west.

To get everyone searching as much as possible,

a snow leopard spotting competition begins.

Dondrub, six points.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Mine. That's my point.

One point for spotting a snow leopard, two points for if you actually film it.

Sonam, two points.

There are two snow leopards, so we split two points.

-Thank you very much. -So you get a point each.

He thought he saw something and then I saw two snow leopards.

-Yes. -Congratulations.

The team are now clearly bonding

in their mission to get snow leopards on the main camera.

Okay, thank you, everybody.

-Thank you. -No points.

I love to track these cats.

But most of the time the cats here are either on rocks,

where they leave no tracks,

or they're on this grass, where they also leave no tracks.

So our only opportunity really for tracking is when we have snow.

And this place does not get a lot of snow

and it usually melts off fairly quickly.

So that means the animals don't have a lot of time to leave tracks.

But we have had some really good tracking situations

and honestly, that's one of my greatest thrills.

Fresh snow, fresh tracks and you know there's a cat at the other end of that.

Bingo.

And with some snow on the ground,

the tracking skills of the team become crucial.

Beautiful snow leopard tracks. Beautiful.

Look at this.

That's a big cat. Damn.

Yeah, that's a male.

This is the perfect spot, a little overhang

so they can spray here and scent mark and then the rain won't wash it away.

It'll last longer.

I assume that's why they do it in all these overhangs,

seem to be the perfect place.

So there are times I've been on the cat tracks and I see it go into

really thick cover where I couldn't tell...

Thick rocks where you couldn't...

It's a possibility of surprising the animal.

And in that case, I don't track them

because the last thing I wanna do is have these animals paranoid

that we're sneaking up on them.

But for now the cats remain hidden,

largely thanks to their incredible camouflage.

If the military were trying to design camouflage,

they could really learn a lot from snow leopards.

I don't know how to describe a snow leopard

other than it almost seems to occupy like a negative space.

You don't look for an animal,

you look for something that's just not completely like the background.

It's just incredible camouflage.

And even their underpart is lighter,

so when they're sitting on a hill and looking down,

it looks more like the sky.

Biggest thing is believing that they're there,

and then you look through binoculars and spotting scopes

until your eyes bleed, and maybe you actually see one.

It's really surprised me how often we'll find a cat,

we'll have it in the spotting scope,

some of the locals come by and they'll want to have a look.

And even though they know it's in the spotting scope,

they can't see it.

It just does not get any better than their camouflage

and their ability to hide.

Weeks have passed

with no luck since the camera trap success.

But then the team receives news from one of the locals.

Signs of predator activity

close to precious livestock.

And it might be snow leopard.

It's another chance for the filming team to help out

and tap into more local knowledge.

We are headed to

Dorje's house to try to help them out.

They've had... Four nights in a row,

they've had problems with snow leopards sneaking in.

And they've taken two of their lambs and I think one goat.

We have some remote cameras in here

so, hopefully we can determine exactly what it is.

They don't know that it's a snow leopard.

They haven't seen it.

Could be a wolf or a fox, it could be a bear.

The Himalaya blue bear

is one of the rarest bear subspecies on Earth.

Bears break into most of these houses.

His winter house was sort of destroyed.

They've learned that they can find food in these houses,

so they just destroy them, and it's really...

Getting more and more tension between the locals

and the animals that live here.

We're trying to help them out. They've been very helpful to us

and we're hoping to return a favor.

It's Dorje himself.

The family have just suffered another loss.

What time did the cat come?

4:00, something.

Dog, dog, dog, dog. It's running.

A dog. Not the likely culprit.

Let's try the other camera.

See if there's anything on that one.

No. They escaped us as well.

Well, should we keep trying?

He thinks the snow leopards walk

and attacking every time one way.

-The same way? -Yes, same way every time.

So he'd like to put... You find some tracks.

-Okay. -So he can...

-He can put one there. -Okay.

Shane heads out to place the camera traps again.

I think the cat...

They had fresh tracks here yesterday,

so it might be going up this crack.

It feels like a nice... Maybe sneak route out,

that the dogs wouldn't follow right away.

Give it a try.

Okay.

Let me look at the angle.

That looks good.

So when it walks across...

The team have done all they can for now.

Just a few days later, they return.

The camera traps have been triggered many more times.

So we have 60 files.

Hopefully, some of those are snow leopard.

Straight away, a snow leopard.

So, here's some good evidence.

There's definitely a snow leopard in this region.

Unfortunately, at the moment,

he's preying on these poor folks' livestock.

The team continue their relentless mission

to get footage on the main cameras.

Some of them resorting to wacky humor

in a bid to get any information they can.

The view's nice.

Only thing we need...

Get the snow leopard.

That'll make this even better.

With endless perseverance and endurance,

the team continue on, until...

You see it?

Hey, Dondrub.

-Ask Hu to tell me if she moves. -Okay.

She's walking, she's walking towards the left.

Dondrub, the rock star,

just spotted a snow leopard up there.

Allowed some great filming opportunity.

That's me.

Very good eyes.

As the weeks pass,

both the crew and snow leopards

get used to each other's presence.

The cats are becoming more and more filmable.

The team even film

four snow leopards hanging out together.

A unique opportunity.

And the successes keep coming.

One day, the team get into an even better spot.

A few days ago, I had an opportunity

to follow a cat that was hunting,

and I was within about 50 meters.

The sheep saw me.

They knew I was there. They're not worried about me.

They have become used to us,

because we've respected their space as well.

The cat knew I was there.

I can move where I need to, to line up a shot.

And everybody's tolerating it.

And I'm not interfering with what's going on.

I'm part of this.

And I have to say, it's one of the greatest honors I've had,

you know, with these animals.

It was a real special moment for me.

One of the sheep spot the cat just in time.

It leaves to hunt another day.

But the cats are behaving naturally.

For the team, it's confirmation

of the trust that the snow leopards now have with them.

All are in high spirits.

Coming down is much easier than climbing up.

With so much success,

the snow leopard spotting competition heats up again.

Zhang is the best.

Five, 10, 15, 20, 33.

Thirty-three?

And the second is Hu, the driver.

Chinese driver. Beijing. Nineteen.

So now he's going to third position.

Eighteen.

The team have overcome one hurdle

by getting the cats onside.

Now they're ready for the ultimate,

filming a snow leopard family.

If they can find them,

the cubs will have just emerged from their den

and their mother will be very wary.

So it's back to the remote camera traps.

After months in the field,

the grueling process has to begin again.

But the team now have the advantage

of knowing the best spots to place the cameras.

Is there anything?

Nothing on these ones.

We have no footage of snow leopards in here.

It's not an easy cat to trap.

But we won't give up.

And then, news from camp

of an intriguing hit on one of the camera traps.

-Cubs? Oh, man. -Yeah!

That's nice.

-Got to be the cub. -Yeah.

But is it a snow leopard cub?

We don't know.

We need confirmation. It needs to back up.

Yeah.

Oh, no. Camera got knocked over.

The team wait anxiously.

We know that there's a cub-like thing there.

Sweetness.

It's a video of one minute.

Now we got...

That's a leopard.

-That's a leopard cub. -Yep.

Finally, the confirmation they're waiting for.

That was cute.

-We got two of them. -Yeah, there's two.

That's sweet.

And you were thinking there were none.

I thought there were none.

Come on. Give me some good ones.

The camera traps have paid off.

Yeah.

Over the next few weeks,

the hits keep coming.

Rare shots of a young, wild snow leopard family

playing completely undisturbed

in their stunning natural home.

The crew finally have their stars.

They now need to get close enough

to film the snow leopard family on the main cameras.

Hours and hours are spent

scoping and hiking the mountains,

until 90 days after arriving at camp...

I'll never forget the day that we first found the snow leopard cubs.

I mean, our whole goal was to find a mother with cubs.

We'd been out here for three months

and I looked up on a mountain

and just a little bit of mist blew through.

It was just enough to give a hint of a silhouette

to the cat on the mountain

when she wasn't actually on the skyline. The cat...

It was just a brief glimpse.

It was a gift, honestly.

And I looked through the binoculars

and I was sure I could see two little things at her feet, too,

and I thought, "It just can't be. It can't be."

And it looked like a place where if we

tried to get close to them and let her see us,

she'd probably run away.

So it was one of the few times

where I thought we really had to hide from this cat.

So I judged what's the best way to use the land,

how to get in close.

And I really didn't get to see the mother most of the day

because all I did was stick the lens of the camera above a rock

and I was actually down.

But, sure enough, it was.

It was a mother with cubs.

These shots are the first time

that such young snow leopard cubs

have ever been filmed in the wild.

It's a remarkable and unique achievement for the team

after 12 grueling weeks in the field.

Of course, I mean, I was just giddy all day long.

To see these cubs,

to see them, you know, playing with the mother,

biting her tail, pulling her ears,

and to see her patience and great care with the cubs...

125 meters or so,

she knew something wasn't right.

She could see that lens.

But she was just comfortable enough,

'cause we didn't move at all

and she got used to that lens,

you know, peering over the rock,

that they went on about their business.

It was just such an amazing day.

A snow leopard...

The team now have the amazing chance

to follow a wild snow leopard family.

Two adorable cubs, just months old.

-Two cats? -I can only see one from here.

And a mother, doing all she can to keep her family safe.

Snow leopard with baby, they sleep whole night.

Whole day, today.

They moved and then, okay,

when I looked down on the ridge at 50 meters,

little bit of snow filtering down,

I can see the cubs curled together,

I can see half of the mom,

and I wanted to take a picture badly,

but I said, "No."

'Cause if they see me,

I'll lose their trust and they'll be gone.

Over the next few weeks,

the crew capture unique footage

of the snow leopard family.

But as the weather warms,

the cats become harder to find.

A complete lack of fresh snow making it even harder

for the film crew to track the snow leopard family.

Weeks pass without a single sighting.

We haven't found the mother snow leopard

for so long.

And now, I'm climbing.

Climbing the mountain

to see if there is any track

of her and her cubs.

It's really difficult for us

to climb the mountains around here.

The elevation is just too high.

If our mandate was to film

any snow leopards, it would be challenging enough.

But we're trying to film one needle in this haystack.

And our star is gone. She's taken off.

We don't have a clue where she is.

You know, their average home range is 40 square kilometers.

And we don't know which side of that.

It could be left, right, north, south.

We've had all sorts of things during this.

Crazy weather,

extreme attitude,

and trying to film an animal that's basically a ghost.

I'm working up here

at 16,000 feet for months on end.

I think he... I think he gave up.

You know, it does test

the nerves and the emotions.

Jeez.

And then things get even worse.

The octocopter started spinning in circles,

which means you have no directional control.

I saw smoke, the fire went up the...

Up the food chain, so to speak.

And then it just shot off at a great rate of speed.

I didn't know if I'd ever see it again.

It was flying over there,

into snow leopard country.

But I saw the...

I saw the fireball when it hit the ground, so...

I mean, this is probably an all-time low for me.

I haven't seen our star, the mother and cubs, in ages.

Helicopter's crashed.

Camera traps aren't working.

Snow leopards are gone.

So...

We're at a low point, for sure.

Nowhere to go but up.

I really feel for Shane.

Shane has been working on that octocopter

in his garage for months and months and months.

He's spent

a lot of hard work,

fine-tuning,

making sure that it can fly.

And within seconds today, all of that work

has gone down the pan.

It must be very hard for him to take.

I feel very gutted for him.

We are at least two days away from any help.

And in terms of technical help, like a helicopter,

probably two weeks.

It's just a really hard place to work.

The team make a very brave decision.

The last month, we've had no luck,

we've had no snow.

We arrived here with fresh snow

and I thought, it was, you know, a wildlife cameraman's dream.

We haven't had any snow in about five weeks,

so it's turned into a bit of a nightmare, actually.

I think we've seen the mother six times.

That's a hard way to make a film.

The plan now is to monitor the conditions

and come back if we get snow

and if the female and cubs return.

Otherwise, there's not much point.

I'm going to let the fire just die by itself.

We've been doing it for two months. I guess it'll...

Sad day.

The crew are at a crucial point.

So much has been achieved,

but they know the story is far from complete.

They're desperately hoping to return,

but they need snow

to stand any chance

of finding the snow leopard family again.

Two months later, the team return

to a much snowier scene.

We're now headed toward a mother snow leopard and cubs.

And I couldn't be more excited.

The team has been out here.

They've been seeing them somewhat regularly.

And I'm thrilled at the opportunity.

We have some snow on the ground now,

so we should be able to track them and see them more easily.

Conditions are perfect.

So now we're getting some fresh snow.

I hope we get another couple inches tonight.

Ideally, it stops about midnight.

Then we have, you know, eight hours for animals

to lay down tracks.

And tomorrow, they're much more visible

and much easier to track.

So this is perfect for us.

I'm very excited.

Having an egg sandwich.

It's just kind of the default breakfast because,

you know, vegetables for breakfast don't really work for me.

But eggs do.

Eggs saved my life here, actually.

Think you're gonna be all right? You'll find the road?

Yeah, we'll try to find the road.

Tsultrim,

one of the team's local guides and drivers,

confident enough in his knowledge

to get the team wherever they need to be.

So I guess we'll carry on to try and find mum and cubs.

Correct?

Copy.

The other half of the team

are the first to spot them.

I think that might be the mother.

Yeah.

The team are back with the snow leopard family.

The film crew's knowledge of this remote location

and their trusting relationship with the cats

is paying off.

To everyone's relief,

the family look in great health.

We're not in this to film on any given day.

We're in this for the long haul.

To try and stay with these cats,

learn what they're doing.

When we started, I mean, the cats, they would see us and...

You know, if...

If they were close, they were gone.

And now, they've learned that...

That they can trust us, you know.

We haven't done anything to violate their trust.

Even at the expense of some shots that we'd like to get on a given day,

it's like, "No, take your time, be patient."

And hopefully it'll pay off,

and I think it really has now.

As the filming progresses,

the team follow the family as often as they can

and gain more insight into how this population of snow leopards

survive here.

They're absolute masters,

but not only is it the right color and shape

to blend with the environment,

but their movements are.

If I'm going around looking for a deer, for example, or a sheep

and I surprise one, it runs away

and you see it, you know it's there.

But a cat? You know, no.

And I've watched this so many times.

When they see something they don't like,

they'll go in a reverse stalk.

So they can still see what they want.

They'll creep back up over the horizon and take off.

And you never see them.

So, you know, they're just

masters at using the terrain.

They move so slowly.

They turn and have a head look this way.

And then that way.

Never do they move rapid enough

for something to catch that movement.

But even with these skills,

life for the top predator here is extremely tough.

It's a wildlife cameraman's dream, having a chase

come right to camera.

It's just... How can it go wrong?

There are 62 sheep for this cat to hunt and it sits there.

Jeez.

I don't know what that cat wants but...

It looked perfect to me but obviously not to him.

Got a snow leopard sneaking up on blue sheep.

It doesn't get any better than this.

There's no way that cat can sneak on those sheep.

It's wide open.

So, we wait.

Tough life of a snow leopard, that's for sure.

You know, you...

We've seen 'em be close to sheep, close to food so many times

but it just doesn't seem to happen.

I can't imagine what it's like to wander around.

We can see their belly, they're skinny,

they're obviously very hungry, very motivated.

But it's just hard to get a meal out here.

A fact the snow leopard mom knows only too well.

The team now have a unique and incredible understanding

of this remote area and the wildlife that lives here.

Most of the time, we don't spot the cats.

Other animals spot the cats and lead them to us.

The lammergeiers have been the biggest help for me.

They're beautiful,

elegant, soaring bird here that lives off the snow leopard kills.

And the vultures, occasionally, when we see them on the ground,

or landing near a kill,

then often they're waiting for the snow leopard to leave and...

And that's our cue,

so, there's lots of things that are leading us to snow leopards.

Sometimes we just get lucky and see them.

The skyline is a good place to pick 'em up.

But basically this whole team has become

so dialed in now that it's really amazing to see.

Just get this call on the radio and boom, there's another cat, off we go.

Sure enough, in the sky above,

a vulture reveals the location of a carcass.

The snow leopard mom finally has an easy meal for her and the cubs.

She calls them in.

But only one is brave enough to venture into the open.

Mom looks to the other cub to encourage it down

but it's too timid.

She's going to have to fetch instead.

Mom now has two cubs alone.

She's torn between which to go to.

She heads up to protect the timid one,

leaving the other cub out in the open,

unaware of the danger he's in.

This is not good.

She's calling for the other cub.

It's not good.

It's really sad and hard to watch this, she's calling and calling.

The other cub seems to try and go to the mother to comfort her.

-It's not good. -Where's the other cub?

I don't know where the other cub is.

Unfortunately, the other cub stayed near the carcass,

which could be a bad move

'cause we know there are other cats moving around and other predators.

I don't know why it stayed by that carcass.

I hope it's in a cave somewhere.

I really wanna leave right now 'cause I don't want our presence

to keep the mother from coming back and searching for that cub,

so, it's time to go.

I'd like to see how this resolves

but it's not right.

I'm worried for that little guy.

Let's get outta here.

As of tonight,

he's not reunited with his mother,

the mother was calling and looking for him,

but I hope he's all right, hope he's okay.

Scary world out there for such a little guy.

After a nervous night, the team head out at dawn

in the hope of finding the family together.

-You found them? -Found them.

That's great.

The freshest tracks went around the corner

and I was very tempted to follow them but I thought, no, if I do that,

I'll probably bump them out and frighten them away.

-Yeah. -So I took a big circle around to look...

And sure enough, look right in that cave

and here's a set of eyes and ears poking out.

Man, that's great.

The snow leopard family, back together.

Her family is still intact,

and life's good, it's good news, though.

The remote snow leopard location of Sanjiangyuan,

a beacon of hope for the survival of the endangered snow leopard.

A wilderness that offers them some protection.

And they do need help.

Across their vast Asian range,

the impact of climate change, habitat loss

and conflict with humans could threaten their very existence.

Snow leopards seem to be doing pretty well here,

but the future is not guaranteed.

They survive because the locals are tolerant.

And if anything should happen to change that,

I think it would be very hard for these snow leopards

and probably those across the range.

So, it's very encouraging to see how well it's working now,

but it's a pretty fragile balance here.

A balance helped by the presence here

of some very special human guardians.

In this vast region, the cats are watched over

by hundreds of Buddhist monasteries.

The monks practice love, respect

and a compassion for all living beings,

resulting in the protection of all life here.

Half of the monasteries in this region

are found very close to snow leopard habitat,

and conservation organizations are working with monks

to teach them how to monitor and protect wildlife.

The snow leopard in its habitat is considered sacred.

The monks serve as wildlife guardians

not only for snow leopards but for all life here.

The numerous and scattered monasteries serving

as conservation stations.

The endangered snow leopard has surprising allies

in unexpected places.

The crew have enjoyed a privileged and rare insight

into the life of snow leopards in China.

I do feel very privileged

to come to a place like this.

There's only a handful of filmmakers

that have had the magical opportunity to work with snow leopards.

Much of this success due to the local team.

Good luck for your film.

These people are certainly some of the toughest people

I've ever encountered anywhere in the world,

and fortunately, they had the endurance that was required

to make this film a reality,

and the persistence, and the dedication...

We couldn't have worked with a more wonderful local crew.

A multicultural team

who spent more than 250 days in the field

defying the odds to successfully capture the first-ever footage

of a young, wild snow leopard family.

It's something I'll treasure for the rest of my life, I have no doubt.

For Shane and the team, it's time to go home.

The footage they've captured in one of China's greatest wildernesses

reveals much about the elusive snow leopard,

a ghost in the mountains.

A cat that fires our imagination

perhaps more than any other on Earth.