Original subtitles

'This week, on Jaguar Journals...'

We're off-road, officially.

'I come face to face

with my first wild jaguar.'

(WHISPERING) That is unbelievable.

'A bold young male has big ambitions.'

(SNARLS)

'And a hard-luck orphan battles for a lifeline.'

Oh, poor girl.

(SNARLING)

'I'm Lizzie Daly.

I'm a biologist and conservationist,

and I tag and track

wild animals.

I'm here in the Brazilian Pantanal...'

There she is! There she is!

'..with a crew of filmmakers

to try and understand

one of the world's most elusive

big cats.'

Joining a team of scientists on a ground-breaking

jaguar research-project like nowhere else.

'Over five weeks, I'll be following

the most iconic jaguars and their families.

Fera, the Queen of the Pantanal.

Ferinha, the Free Spirit.

Badalo, the Contender.

Surya, the Supermum.

And Aroeira, the new girl.

These big cats

are now so used to scientists, that they share

their most private moments and let us in

on the secret world

of wild jaguars.'

OK, team, let's go.

'I've come to the Pantanal at the perfect time.

This jaguar utopia

is in the middle of an exciting transition.

The area's dominant male has suddenly gone missing,

and now, several young male rivals

are fighting it out for the top spot.'

OK.

'Things are about to get interesting.

I'm starting my mission

by tracking down one of the main contenders, Badalo,

to see if he has what it takes to take over.'

We're on our way to find Badalo.

He is a young male.

He's about two and a half years old,

and he is the only male here

who has a collar on.

'Badalo is part

of a unique jaguar-tracking project

called Oncafari.

Over the last decade, the Oncafari team

have used radio collars to find and follow

dozens of totally wild jaguars,

gradually breaking down the animals' fear of humans.

Five jaguars currently wear collars,

and these notoriously secretive big cats

are revealing previously unknown natural behaviours.

Only one is male,

and that is Badalo.

Wild male jaguars are the most difficult to study.

They roam vast distances,

often moving far away from where they're born.'

Do you think maybe... I try that way?

'But Badalo's GPS tracker

sends the team his movements every day,

and the collar's radio signal should help us find him.'

These collars signal where the jaguar is

to the scientists.

This is a VHF receiver

and directional antennae,

and they're able to home in onto that signal,

that radio signal, to be able to find them.

'If we can locate Badalo,

he'll be an incredible cat to spot for my first wild jaguar.

Jaguars are the top predators

here in the Pantanal and the largest big cat

on the continent.

They're mostly loners,

apart from mums with cubs,

and are ambush experts.

They can bring down their prey with one leap,

kill dinner with a single bite.

And the rosette patterns

on their fur makes them the kings of camouflage.

So despite the radio collar, there's no guarantee

that we'll actually be able

to spot Badalo.

Guide and biologist, Pedro Reali, knows this from experience.

He's quite shy.

Sometimes we have good sightings

and he is super relaxed. OK.

Sometimes he's on the move,

so we never know how it's gonna be.

(RADIO BLIPS) Yeah, did you... You hear that?

Yeah. That's it?

(BLIPS) That's it.

So he's that way? Definitely that way.

(STARTS ENGINE)

LIZZIE: Whoo!

OK, our first signal of Badalo.

'The beep is a beacon telling us where he is.

But getting close won't be easy.'

We're off-road, officially. (PEDRO LAUGHS)

Are you getting excited? I am getting excited.

It's a bit like meeting a bit of local celeb, to be honest.

Just got to find him first.

'We've got just two hours left to find Badalo.

After sunset,

tracking jaguars in this rough terrain

becomes almost impossible.'

Richard's got his eyes peeled, camera ready.

Mark's got his eyes peeled, camera ready.

It's game on to try and find Badalo.

It's super, super strong this way.

So...

..now we are less than 50 metres away for sure.

(ALL WHISPERING) MARK: I've got him!

Just there, just there.

Where? Oh, yes!

Yes. Here, here, here.

That is unbelievable.

I'm literally shaking.

'Richard's long lens helps us capture

details of Badalo's beautiful coat.

He is massive!

But his rosettes help him almost disappear in this vegetation.'

He's tucked away in this dense, kind of long grass habitat,

which is perfect for this jaguar.

It is quite insane to see a jaguar

just casually lying in the middle of the bush.

'We're less than 50 metres away,

yet if I squint, he becomes invisible,

a perfect ambush predator.

And like I'd expect

from a potential dominant,

he seems totally unfazed by our presence.'

To be able to see a jaguar like this is a real privilege.

Couldn't think of a better way to have my first sighting.

He's doing a lot of yawning, and that behaviour indicates

they're about to start moving for the evening.

(WHISPERING) And because of the time,

we think he may be getting up to actually leave here,

so it's a good time to see him,

before darkness comes, basically.

He's standing, he's standing!

It feels that he's moving further away.

So he's off for the evening? Yeah.

'As he leaves,

a whiff on the wind tells me that Badalo

might be leaving us a pointed gift.'

Badalo just did a big poo.

He's basically delivered a package!

(LAUGHS)

Scat. I'm talking about scat because it's science.

'He's obviously feeling relaxed around us.

Once Badalo has cleared the area...'

We can check over here.

'..it's time to search.

It's a dirty job,

but finding a scat sample can reveal

what the jaguar has been up to.'

Let's see if we can find that scat. I can smell it.

Me, too. (BOTH LAUGH)

'Badalo's meat-only diet is high protein...'

Find the poo.

'...which makes for an extra aromatic deposit.'

Follow your nose, I think.

'Ideal for a jaguar who's sending messages

and claiming territory.'

Ooh!

'There's no sign of the scat.

So the scent may have another explanation.

They can do this, what we call scrape.Yeah.

Sometimes they do the position. They put some urine

and they use the legs to mark.

He's spraying urine over here

to make all the other jaguars aware that he's around here.

Could be that.

So he may not have actually pooped,

but instead, scent-marked with urine.

Yeah, we felt some strong smell when we drove past.

Yeah. Can be from the marking process.

Yeah, you could definitely smell it. Yeah.

Very strong-smelling. But nothing here.

But we wouldn't make good jaguars. Yeah, we wouldn'the! (LAUGHS)

But that's OK.

'Badalo's scent-marking is a signal to his rivals

and to any ladies in the area,

that he means business.'

He will make all the jaguars that come nearby smell him

and know that he's around.

So that's definitely a way to try to become dominant.

'Badalo clearly has big ambitions,

and he comes

from a successful bloodline.

His great-grandma Esperanca,

was the very first cat collared here

over ten years ago.

But his rise to dominance is not guaranteed.

There are three other young males in the running.

So on the way back to camp,

I meet up with project leader Lili Rampin,

who's seen the rise and fall of several previous dominant males.

I want to know if she thinks Badalo has what it takes to win the crown.'

So Lili, what makes a dominant male here?

The size, pretty much. (LAUGHS)

And the temper as well. Remember that we are in the Pantanal,

so we have living here the biggest jaguars

that you can find in the world.

In general, a dominant male in this place

has this average of more than a hundred kilograms.

We used to have, uh, this huge jaguar called Tupa.

Tupa was more than eight years old.

Like, he's a huge boy.

See? Whoa! OK.

And his size is just unbelievable. He's massive.

'At 107 kilos,

undisputed king Tupa had a habit of getting into trouble.

When he was injured in a fight, Lili and the team

removed his collar so his wounds could heal.

While his collar was off, he disappeared,

leaving the position of top cat

up for grabs.'

And so, now, what do you think?

Like, who's gonna be the next big male here?

Tricky! We have four young males...

OK. ..that are crazy

to become the dominant ones. We have

Bakuri,

Acerola,

and Carai.

And then we also have Badalo.

Badalo is a great candidate for being this big male

because he's really, really heavy, more than 100 kilograms as well.

Oof! OK. But at the moment

he's still learning his place here, so he's... he's not that confident.

'It sounds like young Badalo has potential,

but he'll have to prove himself.'

'Badalo is the only male with a tracking collar,

so following him will give us a ringside seat

to this battle for dominance.

But he's only been wearing his collar for a few months,

so he's still less habituated than the other collared cats.

We need him to get used to our camera crew

as quickly as possible.

So camera operator Richard and his telephoto lens

plan to stay on Badalo's heels.

We're in Badalo's territory again.

One of the guides actually went out earlier this morning,

picked up his signal. So that's really good news.

'At first, it seems Badalo is sticking

to his camera-shy game of hide-and-seek.

But it turns out... he's entertaining.

And this time, the lure of a potential mate

brings the big male out into the open.

This is nine-year-old Fera,

known by the Oncafari team as the Queen of the Pantanal.

Badalo is over twice her size.

But he's a relative toy boy at just two-and-a-half years old.'

(SNARLY HISS)

'That hiss is a warning

that he has to earn her approval.

But she's letting him get close.

For Badalo, this is a very good sign

for his hopes of becoming dominant.

Lili and the team also have a lot riding on Badalo's success.

Most male jaguars

disperse as soon as they become adults.

So habituating a male to humans is a risk.'

So, Badalo, we didn't know what to do, you know.

Should we habituate this young male?

We don't want to habituate an animal here,

and then they leave

and they might get shot.

And then he surprised all of us.

Discovered that he's not going anywhere, you know?

Maybe if Badalo could be the first male that becomes dominant,

being born in this area.

'Badalo being used to the team

opens up a rare opportunity

to study a male from cub to adulthood,

and possibly all the way to dominance.

This time, Badalo's parting message

is caught on camera.

A spray to say,

"Badalo, the future boss, was here."

While Richard focuses on documenting Badalo's behaviour,

I head off to track down another female

Badalo's recently been spotted with.

But on the way, I spy a delicious jaguar snack.'

(WHISPERING) Look at that.

We've just stopped here because there's a caiman.

Jaguars have quite a varied diet.

You know, they can take down anything from a tapir to capybara.

But here in the Pantanal,

caiman are top, top of the menu when it comes to jaguars.

The reason you get such high number of jaguars here

is because the high density of prey.

In the Pantanal alone,

you get ten million of these caiman.

'With this much prey,

it makes sense that the Pantanal

has one of the highest densities of jaguars anywhere on Earth.

It's a gigantic seasonal flood plain

that stretches across three countries

in the middle of South America.

When the rains arrive,

the highly adaptable big cats

switch easily from stalking in dry grasses

to hunting in swamps and rivers.

But caiman are a favourite food year round.'

Caiman track here. Oh wow!

Yeah, look at that. You can see the end of the tail just here.

It's actually swishing...

..all the way in.

Over the years, as the seasons have become more unpredictable,

these bodies of water

have shrunk,

and so have these caimans' sizes.

They actually have a bit of a blind spot on the top.

So, you know, scientists, if they have to monitor them,

they kind of go in from the top...

..and down.

(CHUCKLES)

That's why I don't study caiman, obviously.

(LAUGHS)

'There's essentially a banquet on offer.

I can see why a jaguar

born in this wild paradise would want to stay.

The flimsy fences corral livestock

and pose no challenge to a jaguar. But the big cats

choose to stay in this utopia.

And the ten-year Oncafari project

has given the team the chance

to get to know three generations of these elusive cats.

Finally, we get a position

on the female we were hoping to find.

She's going to help us understand

the role females play in the males' rise to dominance.'

Picking up a signal now of one of the jags.

Do you know who? Yeah.

Surya. Yes!

'Surya is a major player

amongst the Oncafari cats

and is the only collared jaguar

raising two cubs.

Most females stay

in roughly the same territory

their whole lives.

So Badalo needs

to get the girls onside if he's going to control this area.'

Just trying to hold on for dear life

as we're going over this deceptively bumpy terrain.

(LAUGHS)

But the good thing about this is we are in open area.

This is much more accessible.

The jaguars' GPS locations

update once every 12 hours.

So the team track them to a rough area,

then pinpoint their position,

using VHF radio.'

(RADIO BLIPPING)

The cubs, with her. Wow!

Oh, yes! There they are!

Oh! Oh, wow!

Woo-hoo-hoo!

You are very good at finding jaguars, Pedro.

We're just gonna go around here, nip over that side of the fence

and go and take a closer look. Whoo!

(WHISPERING) The cubs have just quickly run off,

back into the forest.

Still new. Still learning.

Eventually, they might come back.

'Wild-born Surya's keeping her cubs out of sight

until she's sure we can be trusted.

This is her second litter,

and I'm expecting her to be in super-protective-mum mode.

(WHISPERING) The cubs are coming!

Oh, my gosh!

Beautiful.

Curious fellow.

Checking on us!

Oh!

This is incredible.

That is incredible!

'Surya's choice to lie down

just 20 metres away,

shows us that she's decided we're not a threat.

The team have spent many hours with her,

showing her she can trust humans.

And it's paid off.

Encounters like this observing elusive cats up close,

is what the Oncafari Project is all about.

There's no way to accurately measure

wild jaguar cub sizes,

but this pair look like

they're just over four kilos.

I can see that one is already slightly bigger than the other.'

The bigger one, that's the male.

And the male seems to be more bold.Yeah.

The female is called Juba.

Juba, OK. Juba, and the male

is called Chinella. Chinella.

Males tend to be super elusive.

It's very hard to see males behaving naturally

in the wild,

but now, because they are learning with their mothers

to not be afraid of us,

the habituation is passing from generation to generation.

We will have chances to have better sightings of him

when he grows up.

'Chinella seems so confident for a 12-week-old,

but he's very much

a mummy's boy when it's time for lunch.'

I think... I think he's suckling.

'They're still slightly too young to eat meat.

So for now, mum Surya provides milk on demand.'

She's nursing.

'This is one of the closest encounters

the team have ever had with this little family.'

To see such a powerful animal

be so intimate with cubs... Yes.

..is just, oh, it's beautiful, fantastic.

Oh, she's had enough. (LAUGHTER)

They're mischievous little things, aren't they?

'Like all jaguar mums,

Surya is a single parent.

But who she and the other females mate with

is a sign of who's climbing the hierarchy.

We've seen Badalo mating with her recently.

Not even a week ago, they were mating.

'The cubs could be Badalo's,

although there's no way to tell without DNA testing.

Either way, it seems like Surya also has her money on Badalo

to be the boss.

As a mum, it's important

to get the most powerful male onside

because males moving through an area

can be a threat to young cubs.

(GRUNTS)

Even when she goes out hunting or mating with a male,

somehow she communicates with them that they should stay in the bush.

And they stay. They stay.

They can stay, like, between three to five days alone.

The mother out and somehow they know they should stay in the same place.

Just wait till mum comes back.

'Knowing she's usually so guarded

makes this encounter even more special.'

They're so playful, aren't they? I guess

that play behaviour is really important for them to gain strength,

learn how to hunt, so many things. Everything. Everything.

Constant interactions

and development of those skills. Yes.

(CUBS GRUNTING)

Meanwhile, mum's just...

Just... having a rest.

Just trying to rest. Taking some time.

They're so relaxed.

MARK: Was it worth the 3am alarm? Oh, yeah,

3am alarm for this,

you know, seeing cubs interacting and playing

and now suckling with mum, this is the dream,

I think, when it comes to watching jaguars.

(GRUNTS SOFTLY)

(WHISPERS) She's communicating. Yeah.

(SOFT GRUNTS)

Is that a call to her cubs? That's... Yeah.

They just make this sound to communicate with the cubs.

So she's definitely calling them, time to go.

Yeah.

'I feel so lucky

to have been part of this little jaguar family

for a few special moments.'

The cubs are now just following mum off,

probably to find some shade. But, um,

You know, these cubs may belong to Badalo.

These, in a few years' time,

will be looking to establish their own territories.

We're kind of looking at the beginning

of a whole new story.

'The cubs will be Surya's number one priority

for at least the next year.

But as she's also one of Badalo's leading ladies,

I want to work out how their stories intertwine.

Science coordinator,

Edu Fragoso,

has plotted their recent movements onto a map.

EDU: Here we have the locations of Badalo and Surya,

and they have been monitoring at the same time

with GPS collars.

So it's very interesting to see how they overlap in space and time.

'Surya's data points are red and show that her territory

is around 68 square kilometres.'

When we look at the locations,

we will see the females with, like, a small home range,

like, a small territory, and they are very resident.

'Surya can't range as far with two young cubs and she needs

more cover to hide them in.

Badalo's data points are yellow,

and his territory spans around 114 square kilometres,

enclosing hers.'

The males, they have these large territories, large home range.

They walk longer distances

than the females, and they are more dynamic.

They explore the area

more often than females do.

So Badalo and Surya,

they overlap a lot, their territories.

'The timestamps on the map

reveal that these are not fleeting interactions.'

We see that they stay together

and sometimes we can see them mating or interacting with each other.

'Surya had her territory first,

so Badalo choosing to overlap

means he wants her on his team.

And it looks from the data like the feeling is mutual.

Winning over females is a key part

of how a contender gets to become the dominant male.

Badalo's big territory and female flirtations

suggest that he's on the up.

But there are other uncollared males ready to challenge him.

The team record data of these sightings,

but without tracking collars,

it's harder to know which jaguars are showing up

or where they may appear.

While we were with Surya,

Richard's camera caught one of these males

inside Badalo's territory.

It's Carai,

one of Badalo's main rivals.

But he's probably here on a recon mission.

He'll avoid fighting another jaguar at all costs.

Direct combat could mean losing an eye,

or worse.

So a cold war is better...

..leaving threats through layers of scent-marking.

But if he does have to fight,

his bite is almost three times stronger than a lion's,

and he can swipe with exceptional force.'

'When Richard catches up with Badalo again,

he spots signs of trouble.'

RICHARD: Badalo's currently under the bridge.

He's completely in the shadow.

So I'm just looking right now down the lens,

I can actually see his eyes, and one of them

looks quite badly damaged.

He just looks really worn out.

Perhaps he's been in a fight.

He looks very tired.

'Badalo's injury

suggests the battle for territory is escalating

and taking the top spot here

will come at a price.

And for the next few days,

Badalo does nothing but hide under his bridge.

It's the opposite of the confident behaviour

he showed us with the females.

So I want to check his GPS records

to see if there's more going on at nighttime.

His collar collects location data once an hour, every hour,

and uploads to the scientists twice a day.'

Bea, you've noticed a pattern

in some of Badalo's movements, right?

Yes. Well, we have been noticing

that he's a lot less active during the day

underneath his bridge.

But we see in the patterns

of the GPS fixes is that during the night,

this cat... He's up?

Oh, yeah. So what we have been noticing

is that a few days ago

at 11pm, he started to move

and then he went to this fresh carcass over here.

How long was he there, at the carcass?So he stood there

the whole night.OK. And then he went to this pond

to maybe drink a bit of water. And then back to his bridge again.

Back to his bridge for the day.

Second day, we see that he started his movement at 8pm.

You see here? Ah, yeah. OK.

And then he went to that carcass, the same carcass again.

That's already quite a distinct pattern, isn't it?

Bridge, pond, carcass.

OK. And you have one more night, right?

And one more night.

He started to move at around 9pm and then he made his way

through the pond and then back again to the carcass.

'It seems Badalo isn't as defeated as he may have looked.

He's just being a night owl.'

OK. He's heading to the pond

not long after sunset

and then going to the carcass for the night.

I wonder if we should try and mimic that behaviour.

Yes. We have a plan. Sounds like a plan.

Oh, exciting! We might get to see Badalo doing this!

Finally, we see some action, right?

'Badalo will need to rebuild his strength

if he's going to stay

in the running for dominance.

The GPS points show that his nighttime forays

take him to where cattle graze.

If we want to catch Badalo at work,

we need to pay the cowboys a visit.'

Whoo!

Morning. Morning. Morning!

'As well as jaguars, the reserve is home

to several working farms.

It's a fragile relationship, balancing conservation

and livelihoods that has taken years of negotiation

to navigate.'

(COWS MOOING)

'Lucky for me, there's already an ex-cowboy

as part of the jaguar research team,

who's willing to tell me all about it.'

When were you a cowboy, Mario?

(SPEAKS PORTUGUESE)

'Back then, Mario Nelson

had a very different experience of the jaguars.

His father and the other cowboys wouldn't tolerate the jaguars

anywhere near them or their livestock.

They would always scare the big cats off,

chasing them out of any shared territory.'

And your dad, he's proud of you now,

doing the work you do?

'Mario Nelson, his father,

and many of the local cattle ranchers

have reached a new level of understanding with jaguars.

There are still sometimes cow casualties.

But now there are carefully calculated

compensation plans in place.

So, many ranchers no longer see jaguars as a threat.'

OK. (FLIES BUZZING)

'The scientists study any carcasses

to understand what happened.

Many of the cows die from natural causes,

and the jaguars make the most

of the free meal.

It looks like Badalo has been here.'

I've never seen so clearly the evidence of the jaguars

cutting right into the ribs here.

Let's set up the camera trap. This is perfect.

'Badalo is a cat with a schedule.

I'm hoping he returns for another meal.

The plan is to meet him here tonight,

and the camera trap is backup in case he arrives before we do.

On. OK!

Bye.

'Now Badalo's movements make sense.

But he can't be in two places at once.

And when he moves between his bridge and the carcass,

he leaves the south-eastern side of his territory...

..unguarded.

Bakuri is another one of Badalo's young rivals.'

(CROAKS)

'He's not the biggest, but he's ambitious.

His battle-scarred shoulder is proof.

He can detect several layers of scent and claw marks on this tree.

He can tell that there are bigger males than him

moving through this area.'

(BIRD SQUAWKS)

'This time, he chooses not to add his own calling card to the outpost

and opts to fly under the radar.'

(CHIRPING)

'We're heading back to the lodge to wait for sunset,

before we go out at night to try and meet Badalo.

But we haven't gone far

when Richard radioes to tell me he's spotted someone special.'

'Worth getting here, if you can.

She's absolutely stunning.'

'She's a unique cat

with an amazing story of determination

and perseverance.'

Yes, there she is! (GASPS)

Wow!

This is Leventina just here now.

'I'm happy to see her,

but it worries me that she's here,

inside Badalo's territory.'

Wow! She's fantastic.

'Leventina is only one,

too young and too small to have a collar yet.

But the scientists know her well.

Cubs usually stay with their mums until they're at least two.

But Leventina was rejected

after just eight months and struggled to survive.'

Did you say she was going to drink, and then we interrupted?

RICHARD: She went for a little swim.

Stop! I'm so excited to see this.

We saw her just from the side of the road.

First she was in there, in the shrubs, and then

she went down to the lagoon, and then check out this.

(GASPS) Oh, my gosh!

'Leventina has no mum showing her how to navigate jaguar society,

or defend her against big males,

but her jaguar instincts are strong.'

That's fantastic.

'Swimming is a perfect way to keep cool

in the heat of the dry season.

Leventina is smaller

than I'd expect for her age.

Unsurprising when she's had to fend for herself.

But she must be tenacious to have made it this far.'

What a day, what footage!

'Leventina's mum rejected her

before she would have been old enough for hunting lessons.

But her full belly shows

she's finding food somehow.'

She looks like she's doing really well.

You know, for a cub that was abandoned.

That's amazing. That is such an encounter.

I'm a bit jealous of that, Richard.

'What a treat!

I just hope Leventina's luck continues

if she does come face-to-face with the big males

that move through here.'

(INSECTS CHIRPING)

'Getting to see Leventina was the best surprise.

But now it's time to resume our mission to understand Badalo.

The team here don't usually go out at night,

but I'm determined to witness what Badalo has been up to.'

So we are heading out on a night shoot.

We are sick of waiting for Badalo.

So the plan is to go and meet him at night in the field.

But one of the things we have to do

is cover ourselves

in mosquito nets,

because it is gonna be pretty intense out there.

This is gonna be something else, guys.

These mosquitoes do not mess around.

(LAUGHTER)

Mario over here, who's hard as nails,

just gets a head net. (LAUGHS)

That's all he gets.

We are off to find Badalo.

(GASPS) Look at the skies.

BEA: Amazing. Wow! Look at that.

Whoa! (LAUGHING)

That, I feel, is good luck for this evening.

'As the sun sets, the temperature drops,

and if he's keeping to schedule,

Badalo will soon be on the move.'

So, he's following

the rough direction that we want him to,

but we have lost him.

So how much longer do we have on the VHF?

BEA: Well, until eight.

It's now... Oh, gosh, OK, it's quarter to eight,

which means we only have about 15 minutes left

until the collar that we're using to find him

goes off completely to save battery for the night.

'I know from experience

how hard it is to track an animal at nighttime,

so I'm crossing everything that Badalo does what we expect.'

BEA: The signal is pointing to the direction of the carcass.

With Badalo? Yeah.Ooh!

'Tonight, luck is on our side.'

Do you see him?

Yeah. Where is he?

(WHISPERING) We just beat him to the carcass!

Bea here is using a red light.

It's a lot less harmful for the jaguar.

You know, having a bright light

in their face constantly is really annoying.

A jaguar's eyesight is about six times stronger

than ours, so, you know, they really have amazing vision.

It's what makes them so good at hunting at night.

'I'm so pleased to finally witness Badalo in action.

But with all eyes on him,

we totally missed something unexpected.'

MARIO: We have another jaguar. Another? How close?

There.

'A different jaguar has crept up to the carcass.

I'd expect any cat challenging Badalo

to be a big, rival male.'

Oh, you can see them! Leventina.

Oh! Leventina?

Leventina!

'Little Leventina, the abandoned cub,

is helping herself to Badalo the top cat's meal.

It's a bold move on her part.

(WHISPERING) Badalo...

..is approaching the carcass carefully...

..because Leventina...

..is already on it now.

(GASPS) Oh, she spotted him.

Oh, she is staring him out.

'He looks at least three times her size.'

He's approaching, nice and slow.

Just gonna see what he does. He's being very careful.

Woah. This is a tense minute.

This is unreal.

Not only are we supposed to have a dominant male in front of us,

but we've got

Leventina,

a cub that was abandoned early,

that's survived against all odds.

She gave him... She's actually given Badalo a bop!

Leventina is being super submissive.

She's gone down, she's on her back.

(HISSING) Ooh, bit of hissing going on.

(HISSING)

Uh, Leventina is being very submissive.

(SNARLS)

Oh! (LAUGHS)

'Exposing her belly,

the most vulnerable part of her body,

is Leventina's way of showing that she's not a threat.'

(EXHALES)

She's being very submissive.

(LOW GROWL)

There are few early warning signs in jaguars.

But hissing is probably the last step

before Badalo would give her something a bit more serious.

Leventina doesn't want to push it too far with Badalo

because he is such a big male,

but she also doesn't want to let go of a free food resource.

So if she's submissive enough, if she plays it right,

hopefully, she'll still be able to feed.

(LAUGHING)

She's clinging on to that carcass for dear life.

This is how she's survived so well,

is by being opportunistic and scavenging in this way.

'I feel more like I'm watching social lions on a carcass,

not jaguars.'

This couldn't get any better! (LAUGHING)

'Seeing wild individuals

interacting totally naturally

reminds me just how special this place is.

And our backup camera trap

is even catching the action from another angle.'

(BONES CRUNCHING)

You can hear the tearing, the ripping of the meat

and the crunching of those bones.

Like it's chewing gum.

'Jaguars are said to have

the strongest jaw muscles of any big cat.

And from those sounds,

I believe it.'

(WHISPERING) I think, as a biologist,

when you look at movement data...

..I get really excited about the thought,

the glimmer of hope,

that you look at that GPS point and go,

"We think he's gonna be doing this at this time,

we think he's gonna be here this time."

And then, for that actually to happen

is a dream come true.

(GROWLING)

Bea, how are you feeling?

I'm just so happy. (BOTH LAUGH)

Have you seen this before? No!

Are you glad that we...

Are you glad that we persevered?

Yes! It was good.

'Now the jaguars are focused on the food,

we can switch to white light without disturbing them.

And I've got a chance to use my favourite bit of camera tech.'

This is a thermal drone. There's absolutely no way

we're gonna fly this drone. There's really no need.

But I'm really interested to see what these look like

on the carcass feeding. You know, it's a high-energy behaviour.

So let's have a look.

(DRONE BEEPS)

It's like a giant disco ball.

(LAUGHS)

I'm trying to be discreet here.

(DRONE BEEPS LOUDLY)

Can someone please make a drone that's silent?

Right.

Nice.

Oh, my God. There's a third jaguar! Guys!

Straight ahead! Straight ahead of us!

(EXCLAIMING SOFTLY)

Who is this? Who is this? Who is this?

This is... This is Surya!

(STIFLED LAUGH)

I'm shaking.

As I was saying, this is why the thermal drone

is useful. (LAUGHS)

Literally turned it on

and Surya is watching from afar.

This is unreal!

'We need the thermal drone to be our night vision.

But Badalo and Leventina will have known Surya was there.

There's no sign of her cubs,

so she must have stashed them safe in the forest.'

Surya is currently

sat up looking at the carcass, seeing what's happening,

but she's pretty much just waiting for her turn,

which is kind of bizarre because she's a big jaguar.

'Surya's suckling two demanding cubs,

so she has to be hungry.

But she seems cautious.

She's big for a female, but even so,

approaching another jaguar's food

is risky. And Badalo must be at least 30 kilos more than her.'

It's kind of odd to see her sat.

'It looks like she's waiting for permission to move in.

Her movement data showed me that she and Badalo have history.

But this could be the first time she and little Leventina have met.'

Badalo has moved away from the carcass.

Leventina is still on it.

Surya is moving in.

She's just gone straight past Badalo.

Oh, I'm not sure what's going to happen here.

We might be about to see a bit of a scuffle here.

Scuffle? They're jaguars.

It's anything but a scuffle. (LAUGHS)

(GROWLING)

(LIZZIE GASPS)

And the size difference between Surya and Leventina is huge.

So Surya definitely has the upper hand.

But Leventina just doesn't want to let this food go.

(GROWLING)

Oh, poor girl!

That was intense!

Leventina and Surya had a proper bust-up then.

(GROWLING)

'Between the two females, Surya holds the power.

And she needs that food

so she can feed her own cubs.

But dogged Leventina will not give up

a potential lifeline meal without a fight.'

Ooh, this is really tense.

(GROWLS) No!

(GROWLING)

'Just as I'm really worried for Leventina's safety...'

Oh... (GASPS) Badalo's coming back over.

(BADALO GRUNTING)

'Doesn't sound like much,

but that grunt is Badalo communicating some kind of message.'

Surya is literally running off

from Badalo's call.

What just happened?

(EXHALES) If anything...

..that was probably a bit of a warning?

BEA: Yeah, could be.

It's very interesting.

'The way that Surya reacted makes me think

that that call was a caution from Badalo

to leave Leventina alone.

It's fascinating and gentle behaviour

from a big, dominant rising star

towards a younger, more vulnerable cat.

In a year or so, Leventina will become old enough to mate.

So Badalo protecting her now

could be a way of earning her trust for the future.'

I think, like, the team

have been phenomenal in taking the opportunity

to collar Badalo, because this is a world first. This is a...

..you know, a big cat first

when it comes to the solitary big cats.

Whether he'll disperse,

whether he'll become a dominant male...

We have so much more to learn.

And it feels incredible to go on that journey with him.

Subtitles by Sky Access Services www.skyaccessibility.sky