Original subtitles

If you want to get close to a tiger

get an elephant.

But these elephants carry cameras

and with them

they have recorded the most intimate images of tigers ever seen.

In the last program

they discovered a litter of four cubs.

We watched as their mother protected them from enemies.

We saw how she hunted to provide them with food.

Slowly they started to acquire the skills

they needed for life in the forest.

But nothing had prepared them for the day

that a dangerous stranger arrived at their water hole.

The lives of the cubs are at risk.

Their mother isn't at the den

and hasn't been seen for days.

A leopard is drinking from a water hole close by.

Leopards kill tiger cubs.

The cubs are now 8 months old

and they could put up a real fight

but a full grown leopard is a formidable adversary.

Fortunately, it seems that all she wanted was a drink.

With the danger past

the cubs have to deal with more routine problems.

What, for example, is the best way to get out of the den.

Not so difficult after all.

Now it's the time for play.

Keeping cool is a major preoccupation.

Damp sand in the shaded spot is just the place to do so.

They urinate directly into the pool

that conceals their scent from predators

a particularly necessary precaution when mother is away.

The cubs are still nervous.

They daren't stray far from the den.

The crew with the camera elephants

are becoming concerned about the mother's safety

and decide to go in search of her.

Methodically, they explore her territory in the centre of Pench tiger reserve

but it's an area of around 10 square miles

and within it, she could be anywhere.

The elephants can get to almost any place that a tigress is likely to reach

and the cameras can be switch on the moment an animal is sighted.

But this is not what they were hoping to find

another leopard, a male this time

and not far form the cubs' den.

The Indian leopard is notoriously secretive

and rarely seen

but in Pench they far outnumber tigers.

They are a real threat to any tiger cubs

that've lost the protection of their mother.

Despite the dangers

the cubs spend most of the day out of the den.

Being a foursome seems to give them confidence.

At this age, the two brothers and two sisters get on well together

and rarely squabble.

They've now been without food for many days

and they must be feeling very hungry

and to make matters worse

their favorite prey appears nearby.

Cubs as young as this haven't a hope of catching such swift prey

but there is no harm in trying.

It's a chance to try out some of the techniques

they learnt from watching their mother.

They are making all the right moves.

But they haven't got the patience.

Cubs have to go for long periods without food

but if the mother doesn't return soon

they will rapidly lose condition.

The next day, the crew hear alarm calls from deer nearby

that might mean there's a tiger around

so the elephants set off to investigate.

As they close in on the calls

the elephant cams are switched on remotely.

Trunk cam, the first on the scene, finds the tiger

but it's not the cubs' mother. It's a male.

If he is a stranger, he might well kill the cubs.

Trunk cam can film from either the elephant or on the ground

and it moves even closer on the internal power.

It's good news.

This is Charger

the cubs' father and therefore their protector.

He gained his name from his habit of charging the elephants

but now he merely warns them off with a few growls.

A fearless father is exactly what the cubs need right now

he will keep away any rival males

who might harm them.

But the cubs' problems are by no means over.

Their mother has never left them for as long as this before.

Next day, the search for her continues.

The elephants separated to fan out across the territory.

Then a breakthrough

fresh pugmarks not far from her cubs.

Footprints can identify an individual tiger.

The mahouts who ride the elephants say

these look like the cubs' mother's.

They are certainly very fresh.

And there is a female tiger.

She's scent-marking which suggests that this is indeed her territory.

But only a closer view will confirm her identity.

She is the mother.

Why she left is a mystery.

The mahouts say that a strange male tiger has been seen in the reserve

and think that she may have left to try to lure him away

from the cubs.

The family is now reunited.

Although leaving then was itself a risk

it was probably the lesser of two evils.

The (chrisom) grooming not only helps clean the cubs

it gives them much needed reassurance.

The tigress has done a remarkable job in raising all four cubs

but there are still very much of risk.

Half of tiger cubs born die

before they are a year old from one cause or another.

The leopard is back.

Will she risk coming down for a drink

now that the tigress is back in residence?

She thinks better off it.

And then we see that the leopard has her own family to protect.

Two five-month-old cubs.

She leads them away to a less dangerous part of the forest.

To record the lives of some of the other inhabitants of the forest

the elephants cease other kinds of spy cams.

Log cam can be put on ground and left to operate by itself.

It will turn itself on whenever anything large moves in front of it.

Many of these cameras are placed around the tigresses' territory

and carefully positioned.

Spotted deer are regularly caught by these kindly cameras

they are one of the favorite foods of tigers.

With hungry cubs to feed

the tigress must find a meal quickly.

But there are no deer nearby.

Now as she searches for prey

the cubs often travel with her.

That way, she can visit distant parts of her territory

where the deer have not been hunted for sometime

so are less on their guard.

Spotted deer often share lookout duties with monkeys.

That suits both parties.

But at the water hole, it's different.

There not every monkey is a friend.

Log-cam reveals that macaques actually chase deer away.

Even the biggest stags retreat.

With the deer having taken flight

the macaques have to rely on their own surveillance skills.

The tiger spells danger.

Two tigers are clearly a terrifying sight.

And five must surely be every monkey's worst nightmare.

The spotted deer hear the commotion.

But the tigress is not particularly perturbed.

This old teak forest teems with life.

If she keeps moving

she will get lots more chances.

Here there are plenty to choose from.

She's got one.

Tigers are generally said to succeed just 1 time out of 10

but this tigress kills on average every third try.

She needs to be good.

Her cubs have already got huge appetites

and by the time they leave her

they will weigh 8 times as much.

Even at this size

each cub consumes around 2 kilos of meat at a single sitting.

The camera elephants take a bath everyday.

They work for five hours at a stretch

then the rest of the day is their own.

In the sweltering summer

these daily ritual brings much needed relief from the heat.

The cubs also like a cooling dip

but the pool by the den is not large

and when their mother joins in

things can get a little crowed.

In spite of the heat

summer is a good time of year

for some of the forest animals.

These are among the rarest, sloth bears.

They only venture out during the day in the most secluded places

but spy cam was there to record them.

They are feasting on fallen breadfruit.

Wild boar are also partial to breadfruit.

Most animals fear sloth bears

but not apparently wild boar

at least not when there is food around.

Although there is plenty for all

it's sometime necessary for the bears to show who is boss

the bear cubs are working out

where they stand in the pecking order.

They are aggressive creatures by nature

and will face down even the biggest predators

but them must show no fear.

Even so, for the youngsters things sometimes get just too much

and it's time to retreat.

The tigers have moved from their small and shrinking bath tub

to a more commodious bathing pool.

A reservoir built by the local people

will provide them with water throughout the year.

It's a great place to cool down.

The sambar deer are feeling the heat too.

The wild boar also enjoy a mud bath

and combining the volley with a meal

just doubles the pleasure.

Mud bathing is clearly enjoyable

but it also helps an animals to get rid of ticks

and other skin parasite.

The tigress hasn't yet found the perfect spot.

Her cubs opt for shade.

Tigers are one of the few cats

that actually enjoy swimming

and they usually pick den sites close to water.

As they travel around their territories during the summer

they move as quick as possible

through the drier parts

to get to the hunting grounds that have good bathing pools.

As June comes to an end

the heat becomes really hard to bear

mid-day temperatures can reach 45 in the shade.

But after a bathe

the water evaporating from the fur

cools the body and brings enough relief for the animal to snooze.

When the monsoon finally arrives

it's not a moment too soon.

As well as bringing a welcome dropping temperature

the rains replenish the park's dams and pools.

There is greenery everywhere.

The giant 2m webs of Golden Orb Spiders

hang between trees.

These are the biggest spiders' webs in the world

sometimes stretch across 6-metre gaps.

The elephant are bond to barge through them.

The spiders themselves have a span as wide as a human hand

but there are of no consequence to an elephant.

Their web is strong enough to catch a small bird

but the spiders in fact feed only on insects.

The cubs are just over one year old

and they have an appetite to match their size.

But there has been a significant change in their behavior.

Their play now includes mock hunting

with mother serving as an target.

This is stylized fighting.

It looks dangerously aggressive

but the cubs keep their claws fully throughout.

Mother never takes part in their fighting games

but indulgently tolerates the cubs' boisterous behavior.

They spend a lot of time travelling.

Five nearly full-size tigers on the move together

is a rare sight indeed.

They are a formidable force.

Nothing stays around to challenge them.

Even though its now cooler

they still bathe at the hottest part of the day.

Water is difficult to resist.

The cubs take no notice whatever of the elephants'

so it's possible to get really intimate chance

from the camera held on the trunk.

Progress through the forest is slow

because they linger at almost every pool or stream.

They are not alone in relishing the abundances of water.

The langur monkeys and their babies

seem to have not a care in the world.

But for some babies, drinking isn't the most comfortable of times.

Unlike macaques

langurs are the friends of spotted deer.

They share the task of keeping a lookout

for their greatest enemy.

The time is come for the tigress to make a determined hunt.

One of her cubs decides to go with her

to get some personal tuition.

The rest prefer to take it easy

they are now starting to behave as individuals

each making its own decisions

about what it should do.

The tigress doesn't need to look far for a meal.

She is in one of the productive parts of her territory.

She hasn't been here for some time

so she has more chance of catching her prey off guard.

The lush undergrowth gives her plenty of cover.

Her preys seem quite unconcerned

but not for long.

The cub has still to learn

that this sort of behavior is not what it's needed

when mother is trying to hunt.

The langur sends a warning far and wide.

But still the cub doesn't calm down.

The cub is now testing his mother's patience to the limit

she warns him that enough is enough.

The rest of the cubs are content to wait

until she's caught something.

That shows just how well-fed they are.

Her prey soon relax.

The pools are beginning to dry.

Gaur, the rare wild Indian cattle

are big enough to push most other drinkers out of the way.

Spotted deer are given their marching orders

by the more dominant sambar deer.

The mother makes another start

but she will have to get rid of her overenthusiastic cub.

This time, he gets the message.

The cub is beginning to understand his mother's changing demeanour.

Every posture has its special meaning.

When she has a target in her sights

nothing will break her concentration.

She has taken her prey completely by surprise.

She brings it down.

It's a sambar deer.

She partially throttles her victim

but doesn't kill it

she will use this one to give a lesson to her cub.

The mother leaves him to get on with it.

But he is not quite sure what to do.

The throttle hold is one of the most important things he has to learn

and he is making a good start.

Giving half killed prey to a cub like this

seems heartbreakingly cool

but learning to deal with live prey is a vital step

on the path to becoming an independent hunter.

The mother has returned to find the other cubs.

She can remember exactly where she left them

and they greet her with head butts

a gesture that is used by many cats, large and small.

The chase took her a long way from her cubs

but she knows the forest so well

that she is able to lead them directly back to the kill

by the shortest possible route.

The cub meanwhile is making the most of having the kill to himself.

By the time his brother and sisters arrive

he starting to feel it's his

the cubs are beginning now and then

to be aggressive towards one another

particularly when there is food around.

As the new comers wait their turn

they dispel their frustration with a game of chase.

The carcase is too big for one cub to consume on it's own

so eventually they will all get their fill.

The cub pulls the carcase into the shade of bush

and things start to calm down.

While the cubs relax

the elephants leave them

and set off to look for other tigers.

There are reports that the cubs' father.

Charger is back in the neighborhood.

Trunk cam spots him first

and discovers that he's made an extraordinary kill.

The high view from the elephant back reveals just what he is eating

a sloth bear.

Killing a sloth bear shows just what a strong individual he is.

Bears are formidable animals

and have even been known to attack tigers.

The bear must've been difficult to kill

and plucking it certainly took some time

for the result looks like a rug on the forest floor.

Although Charger has not gone far away

he rarely spends time with his family

but his presence in the neighborhood

keeps away young males looking for territory

who might attack the cubs.

The male cubs are already becoming distinguishable from their sisters

by their more powerful build.

The male on the left has a broader head

than his sister on the right.

Until now, the cubs've behaved in largely similar way.

Eventually however their paths will diverge.

The females will each take up a territory close to their mother

but the males will move much further away

to find and, if necessary, fight for territories of their own.

For now however

brothers and sisters stick closely together.

They still have a lot to learn.

Both sexes have to know how to fight

the females to protect themselves from unwanted advances

the males to take or defend a territory

and siblings make excellent spying partners.

It's looks violent

but it's quite disciplined

and no blood is ever drawn.

Fighting adults use exactly the same moves

but with claws

and then the results from bouts like this can be fatal.

But paradise doesn't last for ever.

There has been a disturbing report of a second adult male.

The cubs' play fighting may soon need to be something far more serious.

Then, at the edge of the cubs' territory

the strange male is spotted.

He is obviously not used to seeing elephants.

Tigers may travel more than 130 miles

looking for a place to establish a territory of their own.

Such a stranger will kill cubs if given half a chance.

The cubs are now big enough to put up a fight

but having a strange male around

is nonetheless a worrying development.

Tigers often use dried up riverbeds as roads through the jungle.

And the family immediately detect

that another tiger has been using the same path.

The fact that it sprays so high

suggests that the visitors are male.

The tigress packs up her face

so that the scent passes over a specially sensitive organ in her nose

which enables her to analyze the the smell.

Spraying enable all the tigers in the district to be aware of one another's presence.

Trees act as message boards and an unfamiliar scent is quickly noticed.

So the family know that a stranger has arrived.

It's rare to see such an intense reaction.

The mother overlays the stranger's scent with her own

to make it clear that she is very much in residence.

In her eagerness to scent-mark

she gives the cub a.

Every tree is scent-marked in turn.

The tigress leads her cubs up the riverbed away from the area

so fast as possible

but that is where the stranger went.

She could be leading them into danger.

There are scent marks even here.

With strange male around

the elephant crew check on Charger

the cubs' father.

He seems in good health

although quite subdued for a tiger with such a reputation.

Then on his side

signs that he has been on a fight.

His right flank shows puncture marks

most likely made by the claws of a tiger.

He also seems uncharacteristically nervous.

The tigress and cubs have moved far from the riverbed

and now they have other things on their mind.

They have reached the part of the teak forest

where deer are particularly abundant.

This open woodland has some of the highest densities of prey in India.

The family is fortunate indeed

to have it in their territory.

But with four energetic cubs to feed

she really has to hunt at every opportunity

otherwise they will start to lose condition.

The long grass allows her to get close very quickly

and without being seen.

As usual, the cubs are behaving in a boisterous way

that is bond to catch the attention of the deer.

They seem to have forgotten that their mother is trying to hunt.

But unknowingly the cubs are acting excellent decoys

deflecting the deer's attention away from their mother.

She's still hasn't been seen.

For once, the cubs' games are at help.

The deer just don't know how many tigers there are around.

At last, their mother is within range.

She's got one

it a sambar.

Time and again, she picks this out.

They are bigger than spotted deer

and therefore make more of a meal.

She doesn't need to call her cubs

they saw what happened

and immediately stopped playing.

She makes a halfhearted attempt

to conceal the body to hide it from vultures and other scavengers.

Clearly she is intending to leave it.

She must've killed this one just for her cubs.

The first on the carcase is one the of the females

and she immediately takes position.

Once again there is a chance to practice

what is needed to be a hunter.

The later arrivals are at a disadvantage.

Finder's is keeper's.

The tigress strolls away to take a rest after all that exertion.

She is proving to be a very remarkable mother.

Able to kill so easily

but she herself doesn't need to feed

at many of her kills.

Her daughter is behaving

as if she is killing the deer all over again.

Her sister and brothers seem content to sit it out

and she makes sure they realize

whose prize it is.

Opening such a big carcase is not easy on your own

so soon she lets one of her brothers join her.

Vital rear disappears

as together they struggle to cut through the deer's tough hide.

After a day full of action

the elephants take a break

but the next morning

the tigers have disappeared.

It's three days before the elephants find them again.

They are some distance away from where they were last seen

and moving very purposefully.

The elephants must travel fast to keep up

although that doesn't prevent them from snacking on the move.

All the cubs are here

but there is no sign of the mother

and it's unusual for them to move so far without her.

As the elephants get closer to them

there seems little to be unconcerned about.

The cubs are still in a playful mood.

The next day breaks with a deceptive calm.

When the cubs are found, they are still alone.

They've arrived at one the park's dams

a favor source of fresh water for much of the year.

These dams scatter throughout the park

are invaluable in the drier months.

Even at this time of year

tigers find them irresistible.

As usual, the cubs use them as lavatories

so concealing the signs that might reveal their presence to another tiger.

With their mother absent

they are very vulnerable.

They find a toy, a log.

But their play is rather subdued.

When their mother's not around

the cubs behave very differently.

They are quieter and far less confident.

They avoid deliberately drawing attention to themselves

and usually stay in the same place.

The fact that they are still on move suggests

that they have been disturbed.

It's 3 days since their mother was last seen.

The elephants begin another search for her.

Like the tigers

the wild game in the park is totally undisturbed

by the presence of the elephants.

In spite of their great size

they can be surprisingly quiet.

The elephants are accepted

as just another harmless inhabitant of the forest.

But some creatures here are far from harmless.

A strange male has been sighted again.

He is a young tiger

who is probably looking for a territory of his own.

The cubs are not far away

and they seem to have picked up the male's scent.

With charger injured

the intruder is probably confident enough

to leave his own mark.

This is a dangerous situation for the cubs

for their mother is nowhere to be seen.

The elephants set out once again

to see if they can find the cubs' mother.

At last, they discover her at one of her old den sites.

This is very reassuring.

But something seems wrong.

She is unusually subdued.

Then we find out why.

She has a wound in her chest

that is obviously causing her some distress.

Such a cut could've been caused by the horns of her prey

or from a fight with another tiger.

It's fresh and obviously a serious injury.

She is in a bad way

and desperately needs rest.

This explains why she left her cubs alone.

The cubs are still on the move

and they reach the dammed river in the centre of the park.

Cubs rarely wander far from where their mother left them.

But perhaps realizing that they are now very much on their own

they seem anxious to keep moving.

They are still too young to survive without their mother

so their future will depend on her making a quick recovery.

They do everything they can to avoid being detected

but it's all in vain.

The strange male has appeared

not far from where the cubs found scent marks.

This is "too close for comfort".

Their only option is to put as much distance between them and him

as possible.

The cubs have survived against the odds

but now they are in great danger.

With both parents injured

and a rogue male on the loose

they will need a miracle to pull through.

In the next Spy in the Jungle

we will find out if their luck holds.