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This is North America's big cat.
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Known as a mountain lion or a cougar.
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They appear powerful...
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COUGAR HISSES AND SNARLS
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..intimidating...
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COUGAR HISSES
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..and deadly.
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But incredibly, very little has been discovered about them...
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..until now.
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This film follows a year in the life
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of two amazing mountain lion families nestled in the Rockies.
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MAN: Going hot.
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They are part of the most intense study ever carried out on
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mountain lions in North America.
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By sharing intimate moments in the secretive lives of these families
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and their neighbours...
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..scientists are finally revealing
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the true nature of North America's big cat.
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Mountain lions can be found
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right across the western states of the USA.
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Not that you'd know it.
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They're wary, elusive creatures...
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..ghostly figures on the landscape.
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Which is why hard scientific evidence about their behaviour
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is thin on the ground.
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It's generally been assumed that mountain lions are solitary animals
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and that the only interactions between adults
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either result in mating or violence.
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But now those assumptions are being challenged.
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Just north of Jackson, Wyoming,
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the scientists of Panthera's Teton Cougar Project
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have been carrying out the most exhaustive study ever conducted
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into mountain lions in the USA.
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She's here.
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There. If you kind of get onto this first shelf and go around that way.
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Under the leadership of Mark Elbroch,
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the team have been using the latest in GPS technology
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to track mountain lions.
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She's moved quite a bit, which is good,
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- so we should get in there and set some cameras.
- Sounds good.
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And then record their behaviour on video cameras.
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They're using 13 years of data and thousands of video clips
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to re-write our understanding of mountain lion behaviour.
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Oh, let's have a look at what this is.
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They also hope to answer one burning question.
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In our study area, the population of mountain lions
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has dropped by about half in
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the last seven to eight years.
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And our goal has really been
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to figure out why.
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Like any big Hollywood film the project has its stars -
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two, in fact.
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The first is known as F61.
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When I think of a successful mountain lion
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she is the one I think of.
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F61 is strong, she's physically able,
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she's the most competent hunter.
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She is really the epitome of a successful mountain lion.
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F61 currently has two, one-year-old kittens.
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A male...
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..and a female, who is affectionately known as Frostbite.
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They're almost as big as their mother,
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but there's no doubt who's in charge.
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SHE HISSES
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Despite the kittens' size, they're still dependent on their mother.
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It will be another six months before they will have learnt how to hunt
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and all the skills they will need to survive on their own.
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Their neighbour in the study area is the other star of the project.
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F51.
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Having filmed her for several years,
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Mark has noticed her parenting style is quite different.
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51 does not provide for her kittens as well as 61 does.
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51 is a loose,
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you might even say like a hippy mother,
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just providing lots of love,
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but not necessarily all the sustenance they need.
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Thanks to "Easy-going" F51,
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"Super Mum" F61, and other cats,
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Mark has been granted an incredible insight into
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the world of the mountain lion.
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He's witnessed intimate moments of mountain lions playing...
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..eating together...
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..and caching their kills, covering them up to minimise
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the chances of a scavenger stealing a free meal.
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He's also been able to witness some truly unique moments in their lives.
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In this video we caught something incredibly rare.
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Note the carcass.
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F61 and F51 are about to appear.
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Don't blink.
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F51 and 61.
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And 61 wins and takes off.
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It's just a very quick, lightning speed,
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mountain lion speed you might say,
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they fought over the carcass and 61 ran off with it.
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Amidst the thousands of videos Mark has studied,
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documenting dozens of interactions,
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this video is one of just four in which there is any violence.
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We've come to realise by doing this research
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that physical contact is not the rule, it's the exception.
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Mark has many videos that record non-violent interactions,
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and the first footage Mark ever captured of a meeting
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between two female mountain lions is a good example.
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Here comes a nine-year-old resident female, and she comes round,
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she turns, and here comes a six-year-old female.
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She's doing mild hissing.
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And in the beginning we thought,
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"Gosh, all that hissing - it's the pre-runner to violence.
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"It's super aggressive."
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No, hissing seems pretty normal
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now that we've seen it over and over and over again.
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So, what happened next?
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They spent two days together and this is what they did.
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They shared a meal.
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It blew me away.
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Having now viewed thousands of videos,
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Mark has concluded that most of the previously held assumptions about
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mountain lions are wrong.
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We're beginning to describe a species that has some sort of social system,
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that is interacting with a frequency that challenges this idea that
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they are solitary animals.
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And it's just opening our eyes and completely turning everything
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on its head on what we thought were the social lives of mountain lions.
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"Easy-going" F51 has recently given birth to a new litter of kittens.
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KITTENS SQUEAK
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As this incredible footage reveals,
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for the first five weeks of life the kittens remain in their den,
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living off their mother's milk.
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But their mother, F51, will still need to hunt during this period.
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So, while she's several miles away,
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Mark and his team slip in to assess the kittens' health.
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MARK: Someone hold that one nice and tight.
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We're good. Here we go.
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I hear 'em. I hear kittens.
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SQUEAKING
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OK, we got one.
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OK, little buddy. It's all right. There's our first kitten.
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Oh, my goodness. Oh.
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All right. Nicely done. Beautiful.
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The team have limited time to work before F51 returns.
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OK. Number two.
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Oh, nice biting pretty hard.
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All right. There we go.
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Looks like a male to me.
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Number three.
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Holy mackerel, watch that back leg.
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Here we go. Coming out.
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Even at this early age the kittens have distinct personalities.
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This guy's... He's a loose cannon.
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Whoever's holding this bag, do not let go.
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He is our most lively cat to date.
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All right. We're good. Let's get some work done.
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Each kitten is weighed...
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This one is three and a half pounds. That is small.
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..and sexed.
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And we hold it like that, this is a female.
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Then each one is fitted with a special expandable
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kitten-sized radio collar.
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This the part where you try not to get bit.
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And then we go one ear at a time.
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Like so.
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Beautiful.
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Only when the kittens are bigger will they be given a GPS version.
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RADIO HISSES She is online.
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Each kitten is allocated a study number and an ear tag.
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The number of this female is going to be 99.
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- WOMAN:
- F99.
- Correct.
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Monitoring kittens is a key part of the Cougar Project's work.
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Tagged, collared. You checked the collar?
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This is a critical age for kitten survivorship.
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And many don't even make it to the first steps beyond the den.
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But here we'll be able to track these four kittens
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and see whether they survive to disperse on their own.
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The kittens' chances of making it to adulthood are not good.
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KITTEN HISSES
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HOWLING
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HOWLING
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Wolves were recently reintroduced into this area of Wyoming.
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Not only do they compete for available prey, like elk and deer,
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but wolf packs will often chase a mountain lion off a kill.
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Worse still, they will kill any kittens they come across.
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Mountain lions are also threatened by humans.
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They can legally be hunted at this time of year,
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and being collared and clearly part of a scientific study
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offers no protection.
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Even the weather poses a threat.
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This is a particularly harsh environment.
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We get frigid temperatures, deep snow.
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HOWLING
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There's all these dominant predators here,
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competitors with mountain lions that threaten youngsters.
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So, it's incredibly hard for small kittens to survive.
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But the arrival of winter,
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with long periods of sub-zero temperatures, is not all bad news.
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For the scientists it's also a time of opportunity.
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This is capture season.
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Fresh snow gives Mark and the team the best chance of tracking
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and capturing adult mountain lions
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so they can add them to the study group.
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It's essential work if their research is to be successful.
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This time last year we were monitoring 15 animals -
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there was nine adults and six kittens.
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Now as we enter this capture season we're down to six cats.
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And that's because cats have been killed, cats have dispersed,
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collars have malfunctioned.
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And now we're trying to boost back up
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to maintain our research for the next coming year.
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The team have been joined by Boone Smith and his father Sam,
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experienced mountain lion houndsmen.
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We're off. We'll go get 'em.
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Yeehaw.
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Today the team are on the hunt for a particularly large cat
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known as the "Crystal Male".
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His nickname is a reference to a nearby creek,
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and Mark has made several unsuccessful attempts
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to capture him before.
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All right. Let's catch this guy.
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They got a track right there, man.
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Dogs are winding it.
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The "Crystal Male" is currently the only resident male in
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the study area, so understanding how he interacts with
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the females like F51 and F61 is crucial to Mark's research.
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We've been following the cat for about a mile and a half.
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He's come up here and then he's rolled.
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Thrown himself to this side several times.
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You can see the back of him, with all the fur sticking in the snow.
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And then his footprints. We call these stand-up prints.
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You can see that this has gone all crispy from the heat of the body.
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He spent enough time here that he melted the snow,
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and so when he stood up in it, it freezes those first few tracks.
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And then he goes off and nice fresh tracks.
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The tracks are so recent the team ready the hounds.
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If they get close to a mountain lion
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it will instinctively take refuge in a tree
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allowing the scientists to catch up and hopefully capture it.
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HOUNDS HOWL AND BARK
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Right now they're on top of the rock line.
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Depending on the chase, it may be minutes, or possibly hours,
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before the team see the hounds again.
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Say your lion, come right here.
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- See when he goes back.
- Think he goes back.
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- I don't know, Sam.
- Huh? No.
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We got a long haul.
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Having started at sun-up,
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they finally reach the barking dogs late in the afternoon.
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DOGS BARK
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The dogs have successfully chased their quarry up a tree.
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He's big!
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But with sunset less than an hour away, Mark must work quickly.
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It's so exciting.
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It looks like we are going to catch the "Crystal Male,"
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who has eluded us for two years. And he's a big boy.
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Gorgeous, gorgeous, big boy.
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And we tighten it.
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The plan is to anaesthetise the cat using a dart gun.
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Going hot.
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You ready?
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COUGAR GROWLS
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- Time?
- 3.45.
259
00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:32,560
He's going to go down this time.
260
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:36,000
But the "Crystal Male" is not going to go easily.
261
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:37,920
He's jumping.
262
00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:41,920
He's trying to come out, he's coming down the other side.
263
00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:44,440
DOGS BARK AND HOWL
264
00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:46,520
COUGAR GROWLS All right, no, no dogs!
265
00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:48,880
Where's the bag?
266
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:50,600
I got him. I'm with you, go.
267
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:02,520
By the time Mark and the team catch up with the drugged cat,
268
00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:04,760
night is falling.
269
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:18,720
OK, go ahead, Mark.
270
00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:20,920
Here, I need your head lamp. Shine over here.
271
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:25,360
The "Crystal Male" is so big, the collar they have only just fits.
272
00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:27,520
The collar's on.
273
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:29,240
So, I think when he relaxes,
274
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:31,720
it's going to be actually a pretty good fit.
275
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,160
There you go.
276
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:39,240
The cat is given its study number, M85.
277
00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:49,760
Having checked his vital signs, the team retreat to minimise
278
00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:51,560
disturbance as he comes round.
279
00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:02,840
After a brief night's sleep,
280
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:06,520
the team are eager to see if the collar is working correctly.
281
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:13,200
We captured him right on the edge of this cliff
282
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,360
and he's moved up there and then down along the cliff,
283
00:22:17,360 --> 00:22:19,720
and this is his usual travel route.
284
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:21,960
We've seen his sign all along here,
285
00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,800
and he's going to just go back to his routine,
286
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:27,320
heading into the centre of his home range.
287
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:29,640
Super.
288
00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:31,960
That will probably keep him
289
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:36,280
beyond the typical movements of hunters, so it's nice to see.
290
00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:43,800
Capturing M85 was particularly exciting for our research project.
291
00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:45,840
Our study area is quite vast,
292
00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:48,880
I mean, it's over 2,000 square kilometres
293
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:53,680
and these males have VAST territories.
294
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:57,480
Four times, sometimes, the size of a female territory.
295
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:04,360
Overlaying M85's movements with data from F51, F61
296
00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:09,520
and other females in the study area, will be a significant contribution
297
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:14,320
to the project's understanding of male-female mountain lion dynamics.
298
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:31,920
Large herds of wintering elk are the main food source for
299
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:34,720
mountain lions at this time of year.
300
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:40,560
"Easy-going" F51 must average between
301
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:44,240
three and four kills every month to feed her young family.
302
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:49,520
They face other pressures, too.
303
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:57,080
Night-time temperatures have plummeted to -25 degrees centigrade.
304
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,520
Several of the kittens have lost the tips of their ears
305
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:04,160
and tails to the extreme cold.
306
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:10,040
If these unusually low temperatures persist, Mark knows
307
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:12,280
the kittens may struggle to survive.
308
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:22,200
That's a kitten, isn't it?
309
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,920
Oh, my God. We've got a dead kitten.
310
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:26,560
Oh.
311
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:32,400
The radio collar clearly identifies the body
312
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,800
as one of F51's young kittens.
313
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,960
It was inevitable, but, yeah...
314
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,000
There are no signs of a predator nearby.
315
00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:50,240
OK, got the family group coming out this way.
316
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:56,640
So, Mark examines the body to try and determine the cause of death.
317
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:00,920
Skull's intact.
318
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:03,520
I live mountain lions.
319
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:08,840
I track them, I watch videos of them,
320
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:12,320
I go to sleep at night and I dream about mountain lions.
321
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:15,880
It's such a privilege to be able to work with a species like this.
322
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:21,360
But when I come across the actual body of a dead mountain lion,
323
00:25:21,360 --> 00:25:25,640
I almost go numb and the scientist takes over.
324
00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:28,640
Observe, record, figure out what happened.
325
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:34,040
External wounds essentially non-existent.
326
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:37,720
I see absolutely no trauma, no signs.
327
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,720
But that night it'll hit me.
328
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,440
They're part of my world.
329
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:48,520
You know, I'm following their lives every day...
330
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:50,640
and then it's a loss.
331
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:54,400
So small.
332
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:02,080
It looks like the kitten may have died from exposure,
333
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:04,680
possibly after falling into a nearby stream.
334
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,120
The harsh conditions persist, keeping predators
335
00:26:19,120 --> 00:26:21,280
and prey low down in the valleys.
336
00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:28,240
So it's not surprising that F51's young family suffers another
337
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,200
death a few weeks later.
338
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:33,440
HOWLING
339
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,040
Her family were feeding on a carcass and a wolf pack came in
340
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,360
and chased them up the mountain and away.
341
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:44,680
And one kitten disappeared on the landscape.
342
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:47,320
There was no sign of that kitten ever again.
343
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:59,640
"Easy-going" F51 has now lost half of her original litter of four.
344
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:04,680
It'll be another year before her remaining six-month-old
345
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:07,640
kittens are able to fend for themselves.
346
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:12,400
It just goes to show how successful her neighbour,
347
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:14,920
"Super Mum" F61, has been.
348
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:21,440
She has managed to raise two kittens from a litter of three
349
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:22,760
almost to adulthood.
350
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:28,920
Frostbite and her brother are the mountain lion
351
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:30,680
equivalent of teenagers.
352
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:35,560
But like adolescents the world over,
353
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,200
they show little appreciation for their mother's efforts.
354
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:45,600
Her son, in particular, is trying to assert his dominance.
355
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:04,440
MOTHER COUGAR GROWLS
356
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:28,840
Soon these youngsters will leave to establish their own territories.
357
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:35,400
When they do, their mother may well look for a male to mate with
358
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:36,840
and have another litter.
359
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:42,280
The most likely candidate is M85, the "Crystal Male."
360
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:48,040
Since being collared, Mark has followed his movements closely.
361
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:54,120
A process that has given him a unique opportunity to witness
362
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,800
some extraordinary mountain lion behaviour.
363
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:03,400
This particular day I will remember forever.
364
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:13,880
It took us nearly two hours to locate where M85 was on this mountain
365
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:18,720
and I set up the scope, and we had this camera rolling,
366
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:20,120
and then this happened.
367
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:31,480
Something I never expected to see.
368
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:36,880
Here are three adult mountain lions moving on the landscape.
369
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:40,160
That is not antisocial, that is not solitary.
370
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:42,280
Three adult mountain lions -
371
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:48,120
two females sharing the male, if you will, like a resource, and then the
372
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:52,520
snow came in and made it impossible to track their movements,
373
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,160
but then when it cleared, we watched M85 mating with
374
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:58,920
another mountain lion ten feet away.
375
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:03,240
Never in my wildest dreams would I have predicted such
376
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:08,800
an encounter and as far as I know, this has never ever been documented.
377
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:16,080
One reason that M85 might be in such demand
378
00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:20,000
is that he's one of the few males left in the study area.
379
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:27,160
M29, the father of F51's kittens, was shot recently by hunters,
380
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:32,200
which means breeding male mountain lions are in short supply.
381
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:38,320
However, M29's remaining offspring and their mother are thriving.
382
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,040
And if "Easy-going" F51 can shepherd them
383
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:44,280
successfully through the final weeks of winter,
384
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:49,120
their chances of continued survival will improve dramatically.
385
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:36,320
Now, with spring just around the corner, life should get easier.
386
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:51,000
But data from F51's collar reveals disturbing news.
387
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:53,000
That doesn't make any sense at all.
388
00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,000
The e-mail is an alert.
389
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,320
"Mortality Data" means that F51's collar
390
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:03,400
hasn't moved at all for 18 hours.
391
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:08,440
It may just have fallen off, but what's concerning is that
392
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:15,280
the GPS data shows that F51 and M85 have crossed paths.
393
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:19,200
While Mark's research has shown that mountain lion fights are rare,
394
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:20,920
the signs are ominous.
395
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,640
Mark heads off to solve the mystery.
396
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:39,840
On his way, he scans the snow for clues.
397
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,800
Something's going up and down here I want to look at.
398
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:49,320
Here she is. Here they are running across.
399
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,600
Look at the size of M85's footprints.
400
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:54,160
Big. Right here.
401
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:05,160
The trail leads Mark towards the GPS point indicated by the collar.
402
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:09,800
This is it.
403
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:12,880
F51 and her family came down this chute.
404
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:16,240
And they must have been making noise,
405
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:20,320
kicking rocks or calling, kittens playing, who knows?
406
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:23,600
And M85 comes up right here, right off his kill,
407
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:27,040
and they engage for the first time right here.
408
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:28,720
And it's boom!
409
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:32,400
It's just covered in cat fur. These cats are actually fighting.
410
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:35,720
In ten years of studying mountain lions, I've seen this once before.
411
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:37,080
Fur everywhere. Look at them.
412
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,280
They've rolled over and they've gone down hill,
413
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:41,360
and there's the first sign blood.
414
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:43,440
You can see they've slid down the hill down here.
415
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,640
Let's just keep following it down.
416
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:49,240
Oh, my gosh. I think I can see something from here.
417
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:51,800
Ah.
418
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,280
This is exactly what you don't want to see.
419
00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:55,960
Phew.
420
00:33:57,480 --> 00:33:59,640
Oooh, it looks bad.
421
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:03,120
Unbelievable.
422
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:07,880
Ah.
423
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:09,000
Oh...
424
00:34:11,240 --> 00:34:13,240
It's F51.
425
00:34:13,240 --> 00:34:17,280
She's been killed by a bite to the head.
426
00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:21,120
51.
427
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:25,200
How many times I've seen her in the wild, slipping around a corner.
428
00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:28,560
This is a huge loss for us, a huge loss for the project.
429
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:30,640
Just going to remove the collar.
430
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:39,160
And so she started a wild mountain lion
431
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:41,400
and she'll end a wild mountain lion.
432
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:51,320
One question answered. We now know what happened to F51.
433
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:55,480
But now the next question is, what's happening with her kittens?
434
00:34:57,320 --> 00:34:59,480
All right. Well...yeah.
435
00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:02,160
Their future is bleak.
436
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:12,440
The tracks in the snow tell Mark what has happened,
437
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:15,480
but there seems to be no answer to the question, why?
438
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:23,320
Spinning through the project's video archive doesn't help either.
439
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:29,680
There are plenty of instances of males interacting with females,
440
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:34,160
but none result in violence, even if the female has kittens with her.
441
00:35:35,720 --> 00:35:40,520
Every time we've seen a male approach a female outside courtship,
442
00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:44,080
this is exactly what they do. They slink in.
443
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:47,680
Notice how low he's holding his body to the ground.
444
00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:51,920
Notice how his ears are to the side and almost sagging.
445
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:55,320
They minimise their profile, they try to look smaller.
446
00:35:55,320 --> 00:36:00,200
It is completely non-aggressive, non-threatening in every way.
447
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:02,160
He clearly just wants to share a meal
448
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:07,240
and you can see as he comes in, F61, there's no hissing,
449
00:36:07,240 --> 00:36:09,560
there's nothing, she just watches.
450
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:13,560
She doesn't place herself in between her kitten and him,
451
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:16,200
and it's the kitten that does all the hissing.
452
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:21,160
There they are.
453
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:26,880
Massive resident adult male, feeding on the carcass,
454
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:31,600
three-month-old kitten and mother falling asleep in the background.
455
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:47,000
F51's orphaned kittens are now eight months old,
456
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,720
and can only be tracked with basic radio technology,
457
00:36:50,720 --> 00:36:54,160
making it difficult to pin-point their location.
458
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:57,200
Since their mother's death, they haven't been seen.
459
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:04,040
Only the rhythmic heartbeat of the radio signal tells
460
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:06,720
the team that the kittens are still alive.
461
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,960
The primary challenge that these kittens face is starvation.
462
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:18,440
Research would suggest that they have absolutely no chance at survival.
463
00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:22,440
That most kittens orphaned, less than one year old will die.
464
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:32,840
At least the spring thaw means F51's orphans won't freeze to death.
465
00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:38,000
And, four weeks after losing their mother, they've reached
466
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,520
the spot where Mark will be able to get a good look at them.
467
00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:46,760
FAINT CLICKING
468
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:48,960
You hear that? There they are.
469
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:52,080
I'll bet you they're down the river bottom and let's see
470
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:53,840
if we can have a look.
471
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:55,440
All right. Let me grab my pack.
472
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:01,840
Mark knows he has to tread carefully.
473
00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:04,040
He could easily scare the kittens away.
474
00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:09,400
Oh!
475
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:11,000
I've got one.
476
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:17,200
She's...She's eating this nasty, nasty elk carcass.
477
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:21,040
Well, that answers one question.
478
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:24,560
They've been surviving for a month on their own,
479
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:28,200
and this is the perfect time because all this food's appearing.
480
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:30,040
Look at that.
481
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,600
She's tearing into that old elk. Oh!
482
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:45,840
Incredible. Where is her sister?
483
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:47,040
Where is her sister?
484
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:51,960
I've got her.
485
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:58,720
She's just lying out there. Right in the open. Oh, beautiful!
486
00:39:05,240 --> 00:39:08,200
Incredible. I can't believe we can see them.
487
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:11,600
They look great. They're healthy, they're stocky.
488
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:25,000
So great to see them feeding on carcasses,
489
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:27,400
but it's dangerous.
490
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:35,400
Everybody else feeds on carcasses too.
491
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:39,120
To be near something so smelly can draw in grizzly bears,
492
00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:41,680
black bears, wolves.
493
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,640
If they're not careful, they could be food themselves.
494
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:48,560
If their mother had still been alive,
495
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:52,320
the kittens would have remained within a fairly defined range.
496
00:39:55,240 --> 00:39:58,440
Without her influence, the orphans roam far
497
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:00,440
and wide to scavenge for food.
498
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,240
They're not the only cats on the move.
499
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:18,600
Springtime usually sees adolescent mountain lions
500
00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:22,120
leaving their mother to establish their own territories.
501
00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:25,200
It's often the biggest challenge they will ever face.
502
00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:34,360
It's an uncertain time in the sense that they face unknown dangers.
503
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:36,880
They are navigating in between the territories
504
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:38,640
of established mountain lions.
505
00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:41,680
They are trying to find a place where they have
506
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:47,120
other mountain lions nearby, so that they can socialise and mate,
507
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:49,720
and also have the resources in terms of prey
508
00:40:49,720 --> 00:40:52,240
that can sustain them and their future families.
509
00:40:55,960 --> 00:41:02,360
"Super Mum" F61's son has gone north, out of the study area,
510
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,760
but her daughter, Frostbite, has remained close to home.
511
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:10,160
So, I'm just going to pull up Frostbite's data.
512
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:14,680
It's really been fun to watch her sort of explore and try to disperse,
513
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:17,640
if you will, and then return to her mother a couple of times.
514
00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:21,240
So here, for instance, we saw a little exploratory journey
515
00:41:21,240 --> 00:41:22,720
out into the National Park
516
00:41:22,720 --> 00:41:26,360
and then, finally, started moving south.
517
00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:30,240
And, of course, she's following the natural terrain, just following the
518
00:41:30,240 --> 00:41:35,400
mountains down and she follows them straight down to the town of Jackson.
519
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:37,800
She's been the perfect mountain lion,
520
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,800
in the sense that nobody knows that she's there.
521
00:41:43,240 --> 00:41:47,800
Despite her proximity to town, Frostbite appears to be doing well.
522
00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:51,640
This mule deer carcass may be evidence
523
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:53,760
of her first independent kill.
524
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:56,960
Remote cameras are set up.
525
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:15,880
Under the cover of darkness, Frostbite reveals herself.
526
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:25,000
She's doing super.
527
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:30,920
She's on her own, she's surviving, she's hunting,
528
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:33,440
she's establishing a territory.
529
00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:37,120
She's doing everything we would hope that a disbursing mountain lion
530
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:39,240
would have the opportunity to do.
531
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:48,680
Frostbite has proved that she has the skills to survive on her own,
532
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:50,760
even in a noisy neighbourhood.
533
00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:15,640
F51's orphaned kittens have yet to develop their survival skills.
534
00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:20,040
Small prey like squirrels might supply them with enough to eat.
535
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:26,440
But that would depend on them catching one.
536
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:58,040
Mark's video archive offers an insight
537
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:01,640
into the challenges the nine-month-old orphans face.
538
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:04,840
This video is particularly difficult to watch.
539
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:10,440
F61 has maimed a fawn and left her kittens to figure it out.
540
00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:15,000
And you can see these two kittens, which are 12 months old,
541
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:17,760
have no idea how to kill it.
542
00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:20,480
They're batting it and trying to figure out
543
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:22,200
how to turn this into food.
544
00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:29,120
This is important because it illustrates how in-equipped kittens
545
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:34,040
are to survive on their own even at one year old,
546
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:38,880
and how dependent upon their mothers they are even at this age.
547
00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:47,120
Mark had not expected the kittens to survive longer than
548
00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:48,840
a month on their own.
549
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:52,320
Somehow they have scraped by, scavenging from carcasses
550
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:53,360
they have found.
551
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:58,840
Both are smaller than they should be, but while one of them
552
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:01,800
looks alert, the other is lethargic,
553
00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:03,040
clearly struggling.
554
00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:14,800
Now, ten weeks after their mother's death,
555
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:17,440
Mark heads out to check on them again.
556
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:20,600
For one the struggle has proved too much.
557
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:27,520
Mark finds the corpse of the weaker kitten, F75.
558
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:38,960
I can only imagine that... she starved to death,
559
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:40,880
which is not surprising given that
560
00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:44,840
the last time we saw her she looked bony.
561
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:49,920
Her hips were jutting out, you could see that she was significantly
562
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,960
slimmer, skinnier than her sister.
563
00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:04,080
You know, we'll keep following F99 and hope for the best.
564
00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:33,360
F99 is now the sole survivor of F51's final litter.
565
00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:42,520
Holy mackerel.
566
00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:45,440
Watch that back leg. There we go.
567
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:55,120
The number of this female is going to be 99.
568
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:57,160
- F99.
- Correct.
569
00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:08,480
F99's chances of continued survival will depend on her learning
570
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:09,920
to hunt on her own.
571
00:47:11,240 --> 00:47:15,200
Scavenging food from old kills is inherently risky.
572
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,440
Carcasses attract all sorts of predators.
573
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:28,920
Even other scavengers are a threat.
574
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:39,760
Circling vultures indicate a carcass is nearby.
575
00:47:42,720 --> 00:47:46,160
But these bald eagles aren't willing to share the spoils.
576
00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:39,120
On this occasion, F99 is chased away, hungry but unhurt.
577
00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:49,560
Surprisingly, over the next few weeks she appears to put on weight.
578
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:55,560
It's just a hunch,
579
00:48:55,560 --> 00:48:59,400
but Mark and his team suspect she may have figured out how to hunt.
580
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:05,760
No sign of her, huh?
581
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:11,240
The only way to be sure is to fit her with a GPS collar and watch
582
00:49:11,240 --> 00:49:16,000
for the telltale cluster of data points that could indicate a kill.
583
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:19,360
Gorgeous. That's what we want to eat.
584
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:23,760
So, they set a baited trap to lure her in.
585
00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:25,120
Nice little treasure for her.
586
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:27,400
There she goes.
587
00:49:29,240 --> 00:49:30,440
The lure works.
588
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:33,600
There.
589
00:49:38,840 --> 00:49:41,480
OK, you ready? On three - one, two, three.
590
00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:46,320
Once she's been anaesthetised, she's kept wet to stop her overheating.
591
00:49:46,320 --> 00:49:49,640
Now Mark can fit her collar and check her health.
592
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:52,880
So, F99 looks way better than I expected.
593
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:54,480
She's thin, she's small,
594
00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:58,600
she's essentially a stunted version of a mountain lion,
595
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:01,880
just barely half of what I expected her to weigh at this time.
596
00:50:03,320 --> 00:50:08,600
- 16.
- 16. She's about...
597
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:10,440
36 pounds.
598
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:12,960
But she looks really well.
599
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:18,000
She's actually got, you know, musculature developing.
600
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:20,480
She's all right.
601
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:24,120
There's one development that is a particularly good sign.
602
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:28,440
Here her adult teeth have begun to come in.
603
00:50:28,440 --> 00:50:30,160
They're not full-size yet,
604
00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:32,360
but they're big enough to do some hunting.
605
00:50:36,720 --> 00:50:39,200
Having confirmed that F99 is healthy
606
00:50:39,200 --> 00:50:42,040
and has the weaponry to make a kill,
607
00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:45,880
the team follow her movements closely over the next few days.
608
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:53,560
Almost immediately a suspicious cluster of points
609
00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:55,640
draws Mark into the field.
610
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:05,920
Yes! She's killed something. Look at the fur!
611
00:51:07,480 --> 00:51:12,320
It's the remains of a coyote pup, which the orphan has picked clean.
612
00:51:14,160 --> 00:51:18,680
That's the tail. She even gave a good chew on that.
613
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:20,640
This is a big deal.
614
00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:25,400
She killed something with teeth, something that could fight back.
615
00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:28,560
This is a turning point. She might just make it
616
00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:29,960
and survive the winter.
617
00:51:35,240 --> 00:51:38,200
F99 has surprised us at every turn.
618
00:51:43,560 --> 00:51:46,000
The fact that she learned to hunt on her own.
619
00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:51,600
And survived in a landscape with predators and people
620
00:51:51,600 --> 00:51:53,440
and all sorts of other dangers.
621
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:00,880
Throughout this entire year, she has persevered.
622
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:04,520
I remember one of the bits of video that we caught,
623
00:52:04,520 --> 00:52:09,280
she's under this tree, in this vast meadow, and it's pouring rain.
624
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:19,520
And there she is, this tiny little mountain lion, alone.
625
00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:26,160
And you just feel how alone she is and so...
626
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:28,160
it's warming to see when she's doing well.
627
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:37,760
F99 is not the only one at a turning point.
628
00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:47,400
The scientists of the Teton Cougar Project are presenting
629
00:52:47,400 --> 00:52:51,080
their findings to the wider scientific community.
630
00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:55,080
This young female still lives locally and is doing quite well.
631
00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:58,920
Mark's work is pretty amazing because he's using new
632
00:52:58,920 --> 00:53:02,960
technology to really teach us new things about this keystone predator.
633
00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:06,160
So many things that we haven't known about cougars that are
634
00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:09,960
coming to light through this work. It's just astonishing.
635
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:12,240
A lot of the things that we're learning shows us
636
00:53:12,240 --> 00:53:15,200
how highly social cougars are and the cougar to cougar interactions
637
00:53:15,200 --> 00:53:18,080
are just extremely powerful.
638
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:24,880
The project's work is also solving the riddle behind the dramatic
639
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:31,600
drop in mountain lion numbers. There are two governing factors.
640
00:53:31,600 --> 00:53:33,560
So, as wolves increased in the system,
641
00:53:33,560 --> 00:53:36,320
all three age classes dropped in survivorship.
642
00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:43,880
The reintroduction of wolves has had a dramatic effect
643
00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:47,280
on a kitten's chances of making it to adult.
644
00:53:47,280 --> 00:53:52,960
Only 20 kittens out of 100 survive until they're 18 months old,
645
00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:55,680
and most of them are killed by other predators.
646
00:53:57,040 --> 00:53:59,520
When it comes to adult mountain lions,
647
00:53:59,520 --> 00:54:05,480
one factor accounts for a staggering 49% of all deaths in the study area.
648
00:54:05,480 --> 00:54:07,480
GUNSHOT
649
00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:10,400
Hunting.
650
00:54:10,400 --> 00:54:14,880
The dual impacts of competition with the new wolves in a place
651
00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:18,560
where you already had existing human harvest on mountain lions is
652
00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:21,040
resulting in a decline in this population.
653
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:27,400
Mark's figures show that the only realistic way to stabilise
654
00:54:27,400 --> 00:54:30,880
the mountain lion numbers is by dramatically reducing
655
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:32,240
the amount of hunting.
656
00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:40,280
But striking a balance between the interests of conservationists
657
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:43,360
and hunters is likely to be difficult.
658
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:46,760
The agents that are responsible for managing hunting quotas
659
00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:51,080
generates much of its income from the sale of hunting licences.
660
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:54,760
We've really worked to use
661
00:54:54,760 --> 00:54:56,480
the best available information
662
00:54:56,480 --> 00:54:58,560
to use decades
663
00:54:58,560 --> 00:55:00,400
and centuries of expertise
664
00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:04,280
and education in order to learn about the wildlife populations
665
00:55:04,280 --> 00:55:07,000
that we're responsible to manage correctly.
666
00:55:08,640 --> 00:55:10,720
It would be extremely controversial
667
00:55:10,720 --> 00:55:15,240
if we got rid of hunting in the state of Wyoming or in other areas.
668
00:55:23,240 --> 00:55:27,440
F99 is now a year and three months old,
669
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:30,720
which means she could legally be hunted.
670
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:35,120
But for the time being,
671
00:55:35,120 --> 00:55:38,600
she's managed to avoid both hunters and wolves.
672
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:56,480
She's sitting now. I can really see her.
673
00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:58,120
Front part of her looks good.
674
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:02,480
But I can tell she's finding it hard.
675
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:05,240
She's lost some weight in the last month.
676
00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:08,960
She killed a porcupine recently
677
00:56:08,960 --> 00:56:12,120
and I think I can make out a quill right here.
678
00:56:17,120 --> 00:56:19,760
And that's concerning, because porcupine quills,
679
00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:24,240
they have barbs in one direction and so the more you move your skin,
680
00:56:24,240 --> 00:56:28,720
they go deeper and deeper and deeper, they naturally won't come out.
681
00:56:28,720 --> 00:56:30,480
She's going to have to pull it out.
682
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:36,040
But...if any cat could survive, this is her.
683
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:47,000
I think she's going to make it.
684
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:12,360
Mark's hopes prove ill-founded.
685
00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:18,080
Two weeks later,
686
00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:22,760
F99 died from internal injuries caused by the porcupine's quills.
687
00:57:39,440 --> 00:57:43,200
In contrast, F61's daughter, Frostbite,
688
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:47,000
has successfully established her territory, avoiding hunters
689
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:51,360
and predators, enduring freezing temperatures
690
00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:53,480
and making enough kills to survive.
691
00:57:59,880 --> 00:58:02,680
Thanks to her and all the mountain lions
692
00:58:02,680 --> 00:58:05,680
that the Teton Cougar Project has followed over the years,
693
00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:09,720
our understanding of these cats has been revolutionised.
694
00:58:13,160 --> 00:58:17,560
Their long-term future, however, depends on how we apply this
695
00:58:17,560 --> 00:58:18,880
new-found knowledge.
696
00:58:23,520 --> 00:58:26,440
For Frostbite and the other mountain lions here,
697
00:58:26,440 --> 00:58:30,040
life remains on the edge.
57800
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