Original subtitles

ABRAHAig osmall,

cats have conquered the planet.

Buas aptab as ey are,

RANT If we get complacentbers we could see tigers go extinct.

I codn't imagine a world without tigers.

ABRAHAM: It's a critical time for new research

and cat conservation.

BROCH: Holy mackerel.

He a lse cnon. and cat conservation.

ABHAM:ut tre a success storto btold

This is an age of discovery that's revolutionizing

how we view this amazing, super family.

[ Theme music playing ]

ABRAHAM: Cheahs are e world's stt la anil.

It's said they can accelerate st thaa Feari.

But no one knows for sure what ty'reeallcapae of

Professor Alan Wilson has spent the last five years

trying to find out.

WILSON: Cheetahs are amazing,

they're so much faster than anything else.

We've got an animal that has got four times

the acceleration oUsaiBolt

and more than twice the top speed,

how can they not be fascinating to study.

ABRAHAM: Alan wants to find the cheetah's top speed

when it really counts...

during a hunt.

He's developed high tech collars to record the cheetah's speed,

position, and G force while they're hunting.

The cheetahs soon disappear.

They cover hundreds of miles in search of their prey.

That makes getting any information back

from the collars a real challenge.

Alan's solution?

He's built his own plane --

from scratch,

learned how to fly it,

and then filled it to the br with the latest technology.

WILS: Weave tracng antea onhe wg.

We have a three-dimensional laser scanner.

Weave videcame a gbal.

That a msile guanceyste

Ok, les goind some cheetah.

Coming into the air is just such a rolution

for wildlife research.

Okay, cheetahs on the left wingtip.

ABRAHA The cheetahs' collars record details

of their movements 300 times a second.

As the plane flies over,

it locks on to each llar and downloads the data.

WILSON: There we go, we're downloading collar 7-5-0.

Each of those fis rees.

Alanlock a cetah's topcording speed of 58 miles an hour.

Impressive.

But what suris himas tt mostuntsere ch swer,

only half their pontial top speed.

It turns out, for a cheetah,

hunting is not all about the sprint.

So, what are they relying on to catch their dinner?

To investigate, Alan has enlisted three volunteers...

[ Cheetah purring ]

And a rag on a string.

These hand-reared cheetahs love chasing a moving lure...

Replicating how cheetahs behave when hunting.

Prey animals don't run in a stight line for long.

To follow their prey, cheetahs must also weave

and change direction.

This maneuvering inevitably slows them down,

but it's also where their real strength lies.

the forc they're pullingtions in the turns are very high.

ABHAM:he fce gng rougtheir legs

would be enough to break a human leg bone.

WILSON: The lure's just taken the corner

and the cheetah's banking

ansee w it using WILSON: The lure's just taken its tail here,

which is helping control the roll of its body

and helping stabilize itann

then it's accelerating again out of shot towards the lure.

ABRAHAM: Rather than speed,

the key to the cheetahs' hunting success

is their agility.

WILSON: We started believing that cheetahs

are the elite sprinter

and atas theimainttrite.

What we've seen is that they're gymnasts,

they can accelerate, they can maneuver,

they can turn, and that is what they're good at,

almost the speed is a by-product of all that athleticism.

So they are remarkable athletes, but we shouldn't think of them

as just a speed merchant, there's much more

to their repertoire than that.

ABRAHAM: Even with the most familiar cats

there's still so much to discover.

ABRAHAM: Even with the most familiar cats

ABRAHAM: Even with the mo[ Lions.]ar cats

Supreme hunters.

The strongest cat.

Could they also be the smartest big cat?

Dr. Natalia Borreg certnly inkso,

and is on a mission to prove it...

Thgh is no theasit thg toest

in any cat, let alone a lion.

Her theory is based on the fact

that lions in any cat, live together in prides.

[ Starts engine ]

RREG So ts are all solitary

and effectively live on their own, except for lions,

they live in prides and are very social

and when we think of other social species --

elephants, dolphins, spotted hyenas,

chimpanzees -- they're all very intelligent.

So in theory lions should be the smartest of the cats.

ABRAHAM: The idea that social animals are more intelligent

is wl tablhed,

but has never been proved for lions.

[ Low roar ]

Cats are notoriously uncooperative.

What possible IQ test could you give a lion?

Natalia's traveled to South Africa for the chance

to test a slightly unusual pride.

Kevin Richardson has an unconventional approach

to working with lions.

For 10 years he's lived alongside

these rescued animals,

becoming part of the pride.

Ken caact a go-between to the lions,

giving Natalia a unique opportunity

to run her experiments.

BORREGO: So, here looks good.

ABRAHAM: Natalia has designed a puzz f theats sol.

RICHARDSON: Mind your fingers. BORREGO: Yeah.

RAHA The lion must work out how to open a door,

then reach her head inside to get to a reward.

BORREGO: Good.

ABRAHAM: There's nothing likee

tGinnthe on, it a Rik'.

CHARON: d ifhe lions come, you just pop it down.

BORREGO: I just pop it back down.

RICHARDSON: Ginny. [ Whistles ]

Here. Look here.

ABRAHAM: First, she must figure out how to pull the door

with her paw.

BORREGO: Clever!

RICHARDSON: Aw, you're scler.

You are so clever my sweetie, oh, but it slams, eh?

BORREGO: What did it do?

I think she's more interested in the box now than the food.

RICHARDSON: Here. Here.

ABRAHAM: Next she needs to learn to stand back

and allow the door to swing open.

RICHARDS: Get your heads to leout the way. back

Get your head out the way. There we go.

RICHDSON: That's not bady, sheBORREGO: No that's gd.side.

Clever. RICHARDSONe mo tim

RICHDSOBORREGO: Yeah.bady, sRIARDSON: Two more times?ide.

BORREGO: I think a couple more times.

BORRO: RITher seeshe t it more times.

ABRAHAM: It's n Ginny 20inutes to figure it out.

But now she's cracked it. RICHARDSON: There we g

ABRAHAM: It's n Ginny BOEGO: Yeah, she gtinger 2ad o of e way now. it out.

RICHDS: The weo. One re te.

Okokaycool BORREGO: Yeah, there you go.

RICHARDSON: Easy now she's got it.

BORREGO: Well done.

RICHARDSON: Thateserves a und of applause.

ABHAM: Next comes the crucial part of the st.

Kevin has brought the lions into an enclosure

to allow pride mate, Libby, to watch Ginny's efforts.

The ability to learn by watching others

is considered re sig intligee.

It would put lions in the company

of the brightest minds in the natural world.

RICHARDSON: Good. Yeah you slam that door.

That's it, stay open. Good girl.

RICHDSONShe n se BOat s's doing. Yeah. goes.

BORREGO: Yand it's timeshe's got to let Libby o.

ABRAHA If ons can learn from each other,

y shld sve the zzlen seconds.

If not... BORREGO: See what she does

ABRAHAM: It's ing to take her another 20 minutes.

BORREGO: Now she goes to the right side.

[ Both laugh ]

There, I think, I don't think you can get

any clearer than that, that was amazing.

RICHARDSON: Yeah, he wgo my gl, he he, he her

BORREGO: Good job, Libby.

ABRAHAM: It's the very first time anyone has shown

RICHARDSON: She knows that that's the one.

ABRAHAM: Natalia has tested leopards and tigers --

ons tpformh right... Itooksike i

RICHARDSON: Now she doesn't even bother.

ABRAHAM: Lions are the smartest big cat.

BORREGO: So the experiments went really well,

much better than expected, and it really did show

that lions can learn social fm each other.

ABRAHAM: Their intelligence

and ability to learn from each other

allows lions to hunt like no other cat.

No cat is easy to study,

though at least lions are relatively easy to find.

[ Mews ]

But most cats are so elusive...

secretiv..

But and well camouflaged...e...

Learning more about these cats lettakes peopleed.

whose dedication knows no bounds.

Someone like Dr. Andrew Hearn.

a chce eounter set him off Deepon his life's mission.neo,

HEARN: I was part of expitioteam

to an uncharted area of Indonesian Borneo.

One morning I went along a trail just to go

and sit down and relax

and see what wildlife I could see.

And I was sat there quietly, and a small little red cat

walked out of the side of the forest,

walked across the trail,

paused about 20 meters in front of me.

I grabbed my notebook, started to sketch it,

but I had no idea what it was.

It was only when I returned back to the camp later that day,

spoke to some of the Indonesian staff and said,

"Do you know this -- do you know this cat?"

So it was only then that I learned that this was this,,

the Borneo Bay cat, and it quickly became apparent

that nothing was known about this animal.

ABRAHAM: The bay cat is one of the world's least known cats...

And Andrew has devoted every year since

to finding out ythi abo the

But the chance of him seeing another one

would be like ## winning the lottery twice.#

So, how do you study something you can't see?

Camera traps.

Coing sensitive motion sensor

th a high resoluti cama,

Andrew and his team deploy dozens of these

through the forest...

and spend months

trekking through the ju cheing em.

and spend months

Back at base therere thounds hou of otag

to plow through.

Most contain no cats whatsoever.

[ Squeing

But entuly, Anew suck.

Almost.

HEARN: So this is the first-ever video of the bay cat

in the world.

It's not the finest video, it's not theost exciti

but to us that w jusspeccula

We were absolutely blown away

when this inappeed o thcame tra in ont us.

ABRAHAM: This is the fruit of 12 years' labor.

Yet to this day, only two vide owild bay catexist:

Andrew's and this one, moreectly ptur.

No wonder we know so little about these cats,

Borneo has one of the highest itrates of deforestation.

in the world.

To protect some space for the bay cat,

Andrew wants to find out what kind of forest they need.

He has managed to capture photographs

which help shed some light.

HEARN:n, wt ist, 12 o yea

we've only got something like 60 photos.

They're so rare, they're so hard come by.

Each photograph of the bay cat we've only got is worth its weight in gold.

Itelpso pie tother the ecology

and the conservation needs of these cats.

ABHAM: Much the deforestation in Borneo

is to make space for palm oil.

While some cats can make it in these plantations,

bay cats disappear.

For the bay cat to survive,

some natural forest must be otecd.

Andrew's determined to uer

whatever else he can about the mysterious bay c,

even if it takes another 12 years.

Came tra are revolutionizing

our understanding of the entire cat family.

Came tra are revolutionizing Deploying them in the remotest corners of the planet

for months at a time is yielding unique insights

to tse vy prate lives.

In Cnatwo ts tt a time woul't nmallcrospathe insights

a leopard and a snow leopard, are filmed by the same camera

just days apart.

Inosta Rica, margay argues with an angry possum.

And in the dunes of the Western Sahara,

camera traps record the first ever shots

of wild sand cat kittens.

[ Sniffing ]

One pieeng sdy h tak the use of camera traps

to another level.

Mountain lions, also known as cougars or pumas.

Camera traps are now challenging what we know

about this American icon.

ELBROCH: She's here.

ABRAHAM: It all arted with Dr. Mark Elbroch's ssio

for these charismatic cats.

ELBROCH: Here she is, running across.

Look at the size of the footprint.

I live mountain lions.

I track them, I watch videos of them, I go to sleep at night

and dream about mountain lions.

This guy's a, he's a loose cannon.

This is the part where you try not to get bit.

ThiABRAHAM:a, In the Teton Mountains

of Wyoming, Mark and his team

want to learn more about mountain lion

hunting and feeding behavior.

Using GPS collars to track the animals,

ELBRH:.quite a bit, they idwhich is good.spots.

No, so we should get in there and set some cameras

-Sounds good.

## ABHAM:ark pt annsig

into the solitary life of lone cats...

But the more he watched,

thmoree ben toeali mething else was going on.

ELBROCH: Here comes the nine year old resident female,

and she comes round and she turns

and here com a siyearld fale.

She's doing mild hissing and in the beginning we thought,

gosh, all that hissing,

it'sit'superggreive.to violence,

No, hissing seems pretty normal

now at wve sn itver anovernd ov.

So what happened next?

They spent two days together and this is what they did.

They shared a meal.

It blew me away.

ABRAHAM: That wasn't his only surprising discovery.

It's thought that males

are normally aggressive towards females,

even capable of killing them.

But the cameras show that's not true either.

ELBROCH: Every time we've seen a male approach

a female outside courtship

this is exactly what they do, they slink in.

Notice how low he's holding his body to the ground,

his ears are to the side and almost sagging,

they minimize their profile, they try to look smaller,

it is completely non-aggressive,

he clearly just wants to share a meal.

And you can see as he comes in there's no hissing,

there's nothing, she just watches.

And it's the kitten that does all the hissing.

[ Hissing ]

There they are,

massive resident adult male feeding on the carcass,

the moh olkitten llinasle inhe background.

ABRAHAM: Rather than always being aggressive,

males become positively meek when they want to share a meal.

After analyzing 13 years of data and thousands of videos,

Mark has dMountain lionse social interaremember each other,ern.

and they're much more likely to share their dinner

with a cat that has been generous with them in the past.

ELBROCH: Wre binni desibe specs

that has some sort of social system,

that is interacting with a frequency

that challenges this idea that they are solitary animals

d it jusopeng oueyes

ancomptelyurni that challenges this idea thateverything on its headmals

on what we thought were the social lives of mountain lions.

[ Hissing ]

ABRAHAM: Cats never fail to surprise us.

Covering more than 30 square miles

anempling,000eople...

Secunda CTL is the bst indurialompl in Africa.

But ecologist Daan Loock made an amazindioverhere An unlikely place for a cat...

It all started with reports of

strange creatures owli.

just can't make out what it is.

Hopefully it crosses here but I don't think so,

there's a lot of thickets just to our left hand side,

I think it will, there it is just in front of us!

There it is!

Oh, that's very special.

ABRAHAM: The strange creature is a serval.

There it goes.

I'm very excited, I must say.

ABRAHAM: Daan covered the si cama trs,

d tois spris ere were servals everywhere.

He worked out that is s times higr an i e mo priine wilderness. ity

Servals are not merely surviving here...

This is the densest population known.

ABRAHAM: Servals are found suacross Africa..

and specialize in hunting rodents and small birds.

They have the biggest ears of any cat,

to help pinpoint their prey.

[ Rustling ]

d wi sprg-li leg th pounce over ten feet.

fitting servals with GPS radio collars,

Daan was able to answer why there were so many on site.

ABRAHAM: Most importantly, Daan's map reveals the servals

are concentrated in particular areas --

around water.

Ponds and streams used to cool the heavy industry

create the perfect habitat for rodents...

Ponds and streams used to cool undant food for the servals.

With no other big predators,

there's no competition.

Servals have become the apex predators...

and run riot.

Now, this site has the highest concentration of servals

anywhere in the world.

All across the planet,

cats are adapting to urban habitats.

In response, people often need to learn

how to live alongside cats.

[ Kitten mewing ]

Mumbai, India.

One of the world's largest cities,

home to over 20 million people.

Mumbai is also home to the world's

highest known density of leopards.

In the dead of night, they creep into the city

from the surrounding forests.

Krishna Tiwari grew up in Mumbai.

[ Conversing in Hindi ]

He's now dedicated his life

to studying the city's urban leopards.

[ Conversing in Hindi ]

TIWARI: He saw a leopard the day before yesterday

and when the leopard saw him he just ran away

thetheride theall.

ABRAHAM: The story is the same l rosshe cy.

[ Conversing in Hindi ]

People encounter leopards on a regular basis.

TIWARI: She came out a:

to wash clothes here and when she put up a torch

she saw a leopard sitting on the rocks

to wash clothes here aanas sn asyou ow,p a torch

there was light on the leopard he just got up,

and she was so afraid that you know she came back

ABRAHAM: The outcome anof these encountersd.

isn't always so peaceful...

[ Goats bleating ]

After all, the leopards are coming into the city to hunt.

[ Grunti ]

Livestock are abundant and unprotected.

Stealth is the leopard's most effective weapon.

Dogs often provide an early warning...

[ Dogs barking ]

But drawing attention from a leopard isn't a good idea.

[ Snorting, grunting ]

gs a alson t men

[ Dog barking ]

[ Squealing ]

[ Squealing ]

[ Grunting ]

And sadly, it doesn't stop there.

In the 23 years from 1990 to 2013,

176 opleere tacked by leopards in Mumbai.

But in just one month during 2004,

10 people were killed.

But in just one month during 2004,

Something had to be done.

Krishna and the authorities took a bold approach.

Pioneerihow to live safelyogram, Krishnalongside leopards.eople

[ eaki Hin ]

Simple measures like staying in groups at night,

locking up livestock,

and not running from leopards

has made a huge difference.

20,000 people have attended the meetings.

TIWARI: The awareness program has been a great success

as the last four years have seen no leopard attacks

and I think it's a good and long-term solution

to reduce the human/leopard conflicts in Mumbai.

ABRAHAM: Unfortunately, educating the local dogs

has proven tckier.

They provide a vital early warning,

but are still being taken.

They provide a vital early warning,

Raj has lost 3 dogs to leopard attacks.

whicmighhelp protect hi. thehit on an idea

TIRI: this that the dog,

the leopard will think that it is also a leopard.

Even you know it's being protected by oth ds

so I think it's a good idea.

ABRAHAM: The jury's still out on whether this even works,

and anyway, what self-respecting dog

wants to be dressed up as a cat?

He's certainly not convinced.

Krishna's mission to spread tolerance is working.

And mb's lpard polati is.

It's a rare example of people accepting their presence

and making space for cats.

Elsewhere, it's a very different story.

Nearly half of all wild cats

are threatened with extinction.

As top predators they need a lot of food and space...

And with an ever-growing human population,

competition for that space is rising.

theast yea, leopds he been wiped out

from 40% of their range.

Cheetahs have become extinct in 25 countries.

Not even lions are spared.

Numbers have fallen by nearly half in two decades.

The King of Beasts could go extinct in the wild.

The driving passion people feel for cats

is now their greatest hope for survival.

ELBROCH: Holy mackerel.

ABRAM: Eeciay for e anal

that's long been the face of cat conatio

ABRAM: Eeciay for e anal

Dr. Krithi Karanth's love of tigers

started at a very young age.

KARANTH: I first saw a tiger

when I was two years old with my faer

and grafather in Nagarhole National Park.r

I was amazed and in awe.

ere notng le seeing a tiger in the wild.

and now a world-renowned tiger conservationist,

Krithi remains enthralled.

KARANTH: There are no words that can really capture

the emotion of seeing a tiger.

Every single time I've seen a tiger in the wild

I've been either left speechless or giggling silly or crying,

I mean it's a rangofmotis, but u ner foet.

To me, tigers are truly one

theost ectalar ca on th.

ABRAM: B likso ny othe cats,

survival of the tiger is on a knife edge.

KARANTH: We see images and stories

coulgives thimprsion th they'd about tigers all the time,

but they absolutely are.

They're one of the most threatened big cs

in the world today.

ABRAHAM: Over the last century,

There are now more tigers hin captivity.

in the United States alone

than in all the wild.

KARANTH: It is impossible for me

to imagine a world without wild tigers.

But if we get complacent

we could see tigers go extinct.

Sorry.

I -- I couldn't,

I uldn imagine a world without tigers.

ABRAHAM: Krithi has spent her life raising awareness

and funding to save the tiger.

She's set up a project that helps villagers get compensaon

whenigers attack their livestock.

It's helping ease some of the conflict with local people.

Here in Ie spe the greatest they so desperately need.s

One solution is to help villagers

who currently live within the National Parks to relocate.

Krithi is part of a team that ais tho

who choose to make a new home beyond the park boundaries.,

the vegetation cesack,the e,

and then tiger numbers come back.

So, ecological recovery takes time,

but I think nature knows and then tiger numbers how to heal itself.

ABRAHAM: There's been a lot of time,

money, and effort spent --

and the tide may be turning.

KARANTH: After a long time

we're seeing wild tigers come back,

population stabilize and recover in many tiger reserves.

ABRAHAM: It shows that we can change the future for cats

if there is the will to protect them.

[ Growling ]

One pioneering project is even attempting to rescue a cat

from the very edge of einctn.

Just a century ago, thousands of Iberian lynx

roamed the ancient woodlands of Spain and Portugal.

But a combination of habitat loss, hunting,

and lack of prey caused their numbers to collapse.

By 2002, fewer than a hundred were left.

The Iberian lynx was declared the rarest cat on the planet.

[ Buzzing ]

Today, an international team of scientists and conservnist

are working to bring these cats back from the brink.

[ Static ]

The teas uertan an iensi breing ogram

on a scale never attempted before.

Vicky Ascensio is a vet dedicated to the project.

ShSpread across Spainst of thand Portugal,nters.

te but toeetmila lynx's. dollar facilities

To ensure they can produce as many cubs as possible

for release back into the wild.

It's also designed so Vicky can keep a close eye on each

and every precious cub.

ASCENSIO: In total we have 116 cameras.

[ Motor whirring ]

We try to see the animals 24 hours.

ABRAHAM: This has-f proa is tal

sohe cs ner me a han. We try to see the animals 24 hours.

ASCENSIOey a allay veryuietveryalm,

and they don't see that we are always looking them.

It's very important for us specially wh we have cubs.

ABRAHAM: The Iberian lynx has become a species

in intensive care.

The breeding centers are just one piece of the puzzle.

The team is also working hard to improve the natural habitat

sooungynx n beelead intodeal conditions.

Today Vicky is running some crucial health checks.

One-year-old cubs Navio and Noa are scheduled for release.

ASCENSIO: We are checkg at l thanim is alth

and also we take some samples to see that he has not

any infections or diseases or something like that.

Our goal always is to release the animals.

It ourost portant goal.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

ABRAHAM: The cubs are ready.

A release is big news around here.

Crowds gather cat a gmpse ofht

ASCENSIO: iss a ry specl mont f me

because it's an animal that was born in the center

d noyou e givi himhe fedom

It's very emotional for us.

ABRAHAM: Navio and Noa are given their freedom,

ruing wild for the first time.

This ambitious project has become

one of the most successful reintroductions on thelat.

Nearly 500 cats once again roam these ancient woodlands.

e more we learn about cats,

thmorehey surprise and amaze us.

On by dersndin eir needs can we help

safeguard their future.

[ Calling ]

There's a lot of work still to do,

but across the globe people are putting heart and soul

into finding answers... There's a lot of work still to do,

and making sure the futurr ca --s has a place

big and small.

To learn more about what you've seen on this "Nature" program,

visit pbs.org.