Original subtitles

LIZZIE: "This week on Jaguar Journals -

A missing female makes a remarkable reappearance.

There's a jaguar showdown..."

(GASPS)

"..as males fight for dominance.

And this year's collaring campaign..."

Running, running.

"..kicks off with a bang."

I didn't expect this to be going on,

this is another level of drama.

"I'm Lizzie Daly.

I'm a biologist and conservationist

and I tag and track wild animals.

I'm here in the Brazilian Pantanal...

..with a crew of filmmakers to try and understand

one of the world's most elusive big cats."

I'm 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."

"I am back in Brazil's Pantanal.

After three months away,

the increasingly unpredictable rainy season should now be over.

And I'm on my way to catch up with the Oncafari jaguar team

to find out what's been happening while I've been away."

It's really surreal being back here.

"On my first visit,

I got to know Badalo and witnessed his battle for dominance.

We met Ferinha..."

There she is.

"..but didn't ever find out if she has a cub.

And I was lucky enough to be there

as Surya's cubs ate meat for the very first time."

A lot can happen in three months so I'm really excited to meet up

with the team and to hear about what's been going on.

Here we go.

I am a bit nervous, actually.

I can see Lili now.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Hello, friend. Hey, Lizzie.

How are you? Lovely to see you!

Good to see you, my friend. It's been ages.

It is, right? Well, let's unpack,

and then I wanna hear everything about what's been going on.

For sure, lots of things to unpack. Exciting!

Oh, that heat is still here, Lili.

(CHUCKLES) Woo!

Only 38 bags in about...

40-degree heat, it's fine.

We always get the heaviest ones, Richard.

"Kit unloaded, project leader Lili Rampim

is keen to bring me up to speed.

First, troubled mum Ferinha, has had serious collar problems."

Crazy stuff happened since you left.

Not great news about Ferinha.

Her collar's not fine at all.

Do you know where she is? No, that's the problem.

Because of the collar, we don't have any tips now.

OK. It's tricky to find her.

"The team haven't seen her for two months.

With her collar not working,

she's going to be even harder to find,

particularly if she's protecting a cub.

And she's not the only jaguar to give them the slip.

Fera, the Queen of the Pantanal,

who they've been studying for years,

has also lost her collar."

And Fera is OK?

She's OK. We found her. OK! Great.

Sambha is great. Her neck is just naked.

Wow. OK. Big update.

Yeah, big, and it doesn't stop there.

"Lili has huge news about Badalo."

Badalo was seen fighting.

(LIZZIE GASPS)

"The team witnessed Badalo and a new male rival, Cascalho,

squaring up to each other in a fight for dominance.

Unlike the other males in the area, Cascalho wasn't born here.

He's an outsider."

The day that this huge fight was filmed,

they keep fighting the whole afternoon for Surya.

Surya was around... OK.

..and they keep fighting.

(SNARLING)

"After the fight, Badalo went missing for six days."

No signal of him, and we got really worried.

My boss received an email of mortality signal.

"A mortality signal happens when the collar stops moving.

It can mean one of two things.

Either the collar is no longer attached to the jaguar

or the jaguar has died."

Went exactly in the place and...

nothing, nothing there, Lizzie.

Man, I spent probably three hours there all by myself looking.Geez.

No beep, nothing.

And then we found his collar completely destroyed, Lizzie.

Are you... Are you actually kidding?

Somebody ripped off his collar.

So my whole team stood focused on trying to find him.

And they did find him with this... Oh! OK.

Wow! ..huge wound on his forehead.

"Badalo is messed up.

The huge wound on his face

could have been caused by a claw or a bite."

What? What? What?

I cannot believe that.

I, honestly, for a minute, thought you were about to say Badalo had passed away.

That's a big, big fight.

So that's a lot to take in. It is.

That's astonishing. That's three collars!

Yeah. In three months.

Yeah.

"It's a huge setback.

We've lost the ability to track

three of the project's five collared Jaguars.

Ferinha, Fera and Badalo,

our main contender for dominance.

But all is not lost.

In two days' time,

the vet will arrive for this season's two-week jaguar collaring mission.

We can now make these cats our main candidates for a new collar.

But I can't wait that long.

Impatiently, I head out to see

if we can find any of the resident jaguars here.

I'm reunited with biologist Pedro Reali.

Hopefully, he can bring his usual jaguar-finding luck.

While I was away,

the rainy season has completely transformed the landscape."

Now, I'm back in a place which looks completely different.

The landscape here is flooded.

Everything looks really lush and green.

There's going to be a few more river crossings on this trip I'd imagine.

"All this extra water is going to make finding jaguars a lot harder.

But on our way,

we pick up a signal from a jaguar we never expected."

Oh, wow. Wow!

Guys. Oh? OK.

Chipa was with telemetry on

and he just got the signal of Ferinha.

(GASPS) And there's, like, months

that we don't get the signal of her collar.

Whoa!

"Incredibly, we've picked up a signal from Ferinha's collar.

The team thought the battery was dead

and they haven't heard from her VHF in months.

It's a huge relief to know she's alive."

I can't believe it, but you can actually hear

a clear signal from Ferinha after months of her being,

well, no-one knows where to be honest.

"When we last saw Ferinha, the team thought she had a new cub.

But then, she completely disappeared off the radar."

We are battling through some...

pretty difficult conditions, though.

"But this is too good an opportunity to miss.

We have to try and find Ferinha.

And then, we get our first sighting."

No way!

On top of the hill.

Where are they?

Definitely! Definitely, they... Those are two jaguars.

Jeez!

Two big jaguars.

It's her and someone else. Who else? A male?

I don't know, could be a male. It could be...

A cub?

We don't know. Could it be a cub?

"We need to get closer to identify the second jaguar."

They're there! They're there! Can you see them?

Mind your cameras, they are out.

"After two months of absence,

the team are finally reunited with Ferinha."

(GASPS)

(GASPS)

Who is that?

Wow!

"The other cat isn't a cub.

He's one of the area's five juvenile males currently vying for dominance."

Now we need to see who that male is, right?Yeah.

It looks to be Bacuri.

It is Bacuri? Yes, by the rosettes.

"This is Bacuri.

As the youngest of the five contenders, he's a rank outsider.

He was born in the reserve just over two years ago.

Typically, he should have dispersed by now.

But just like other males here,

he's found plenty of reasons to stick around."

She's now pushing back into the bush.

And they're constantly communicating with each other.

"It's fantastic to be reunited with Ferinha.

She continues leading him around this loop,

in and out of the bushes for a good hour or so.

It seems like she's not interested in this youngster.

Bacuri has been spotted

watching other males' mating tactics from afar.

And now it seems he's trying out what he's learned."

Oh, there, there... There he is.

So she's growling at him,

and he's, you know, keeping his distance.

But he's keeping on her tail.

"Last time we saw Ferinha, it appeared she had a cub.

But the fact she's entertaining males again could mean her cub has died."

Some of our biologists out in the field,

they heard her vocalising for a cub.

We haven't seen anything, neither in camera traps nor in sightings.

"And there are more signs that aren't good.

Ferinha is no longer lactating.

From the way things look, if she did have a cub, she's lost it."

So she will continue mating,

will continue getting pregnant and giving birth.

Eventually, she might raise some of these cubs into adulthood.

"It's hard to know if Ferinha lacks the skills to raise a cub

or if she abandons them too soon.

That's why her collar is so important

as it will help the team find and monitor her cubs

and see what's happening to them."

With the collar, we can even learn when are they dying.Hmm.

Why are they dying?

So these are open questions that we are starting to study now in the wild.

And I find that quite fascinating that on an individual level,

you're starting to learn about how these females are as mothers.

They are still teaching us a lot of things every day.

Ferinha definitely is. Ferinha definitely is.

(UPLIFTING MUSIC)

I just wonder what that journey is going to be like for her

as she grows up and continues to be a mother.

"Finally, Ferinha tells Bacuri she's had enough."

(SNARLS)

"Bacuri heads to the water...

..thoroughly told off.

Ferinha heads to the best place to keep him at bay.

This morning, I didn't know if we'd find any jaguars at all.

Witnessing Ferinha's reappearance and Bacuri's flirtations

have made it an amazing first day back in the Pantanal."

"With the vet due to arrive tomorrow,

we need to get the new tracking collars set up and ready.

Meanwhile, Richard heads out with Pedro

to try and find the whereabouts of the now uncollared Badalo.

His previous collar was chewed off,

and he will be the main target for tomorrow's collaring mission.

But finding a specific uncollared cat

on this 500-squared kilometre reserve,

is not going to be easy.

With no collar to guide him,

Pedro has to use more traditional tracking skills.

Drive around Badalo's territory looking for prints, scat, and other clues."

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop!

Look, there's a jaguar.

Over there. You see? Look.

We'll try to get closer to check.

But it's definitely a big male.

It's not collared as well.

(No way!)

(Guys, I think it's Badalo.)

It looks like the pattern he has on the forehead.

I'm almost sure it's him.

He's just, lying down in the grass.

Um... So I'll just keep him nicely framed

and wait to see if anything happens.

"Pedro identifies the distinct forehead pattern.

X marks the spot."

(Yeah, that's him.)

That's Badalo. That's Badalo!

(RADIO CRACKLES) Richard to Lizzie.

(RADIO BEEPS) "Hey, Richard, Go ahead."

So I've got some really interesting news.

"I'm currently with Badalo."

(RADIO BEEPS) "That's incredible."

He's looking a lot better.

His face is all cleaned up, he looks sort of stronger.

"Um, got more swagger about him."

Yeah, it's like, you're really looking at a cat in its prime.

"That's so cool."

Well, you stick with him and we'll make a plan this end. Thank you.

"OK, see you in a bit. Cheers."

"While Richard sticks with Badalo to maintain eyes on his location,

I finish sorting out the collars.

To go with Oncafari's own GPS tracker,

I've brought in an exciting bit of animal-tracking technology.

It would be my dream come true

to get this specialist bit of kit onto Badalo's collar."

So, Lili, this is...

Let me show you... That's the tag.

"It could give a new level of insight into these big cats."

This is really exciting because my background is in animal movements,

but more specifically, I use these, these are called tri-accelerometers,

the first on jaguars in the wild.

So, in terms of actual scientific findings,

I mean, I'm pretty pumped about it.

(CHUCKLES)

"This tri-accelerometer is like a smartwatch for cats.

It can measure how fast they run, how long they sleep

and their body temperature throughout the day."

Can I feel it? The weight? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

That's super light.

"The weight is really important,

as we wanna make sure the collars are kept below

one percent of a jaguar's body weight.

Around one kilogram for a male like Badalo."

If we do get these on then it'll all come to life, I think.

For sure.

"In a world first, this would allow Oncafari scientists

to observe what the jaguars are doing out of sight.

This tag will stay on the collar for one week,

recording hundreds of data points every second

and before deployment, I'll program it to drop off exactly when I want it to.

Although that doesn't necessarily mean where I want it to."

I've lost many a tag.

Some tags are actually sat at the bottom of a river right now in Kenya.

So there's, uh... It comes with many risks,

but if you do get these tags back, hopefully these will give us

an opportunity to, you know, really open up our understanding

of what these jaguars do in the wild.

"And there is one jaguar we would all love to learn more about...

Badalo.

Richard has discovered exactly what's brought Badalo

to this area of his territory.

He's guarding a carcass."

He sort of charged at the vultures to scare them away.

Now they've all backed off and he sort of settled down.

He's not actually feeding.

He's just there to stop them feeding on the carcass.

"Vultures have a habit of stealing jaguar food.

So Badalo is on high alert to keep them away.

A cow that's died from natural causes like this

is an easy meal for Badalo while he recovers.

And he doesn't want to share it with anyone."

This is a real privilege to see him out in the wild.

"Badalo is constantly grooming himself.

Jaguar saliva has antibacterial effects,

so this is aiding the healing process.

It's definitely working.

His huge wound is barely visible."

Nice to see Badalo out in the open like this.

Last time I saw him, saw him a lot of times under the bridge

so it's great to have him out in the open Pantanal.

"Hopefully, Badalo will stick around in this area."

(FLIES BUZZING)

"The vet will be able to collar him...

..and I'll be able to get my tag on Badalo.

It's the beginning of my third day back in the Pantanal.

The vet, Joares, has arrived.

He's been working with Oncafari since 2012

and has collared over 40 jaguars here.

But even for an expert,

finding jaguars won't be easy.

Especially in these flooded conditions.

Badalo is our priority.

We head out ahead of Joares in the direction of the carcass

where Richard saw Badalo yesterday.

And this huge wetland is definitely living up to its name."

We need to pull it. Ready?

"Suddenly..."

There she is! Yes, yes!

"..we spot one of Badalo's female followers. It's Surya.

She's in Badalo's territory so he could be nearby.

But the encounter is brief..."

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

"..as, out of nowhere, the heavens open."

Yes, yes. Yes.

Unfortunately, this is a bit too much, even for us.

"Cameraman Richard, isn't taking any chances."

"This amount of water could trash our filming equipment,

but we keep shooting on a small, waterproof camera."

So Surya just headed off into the thick grass,

probably to find cover under a hammock forest.

"In the meantime, we're stuck under cover, too,

until this downpour passes."

Wow!

Whoo!

(LAUGHING) (SNIFFS)

Whoo! (CHUCKLES)

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

(LAUGHTER)

"After 45 minutes, it's eased."

Wow.

That's better.

"With the rain subsided,

Joares arrives and we head off to find Badalo.

Richard stays behind to see if he can film Surya and possibly her cubs.

But when we get to the location of the carcass,

there's no sign of Badalo.

We'll need to scope out the rest of his territory.

Richard is happily having more luck than we are.

He's spotted Surya's cubs.

Since their first taste of meat three months ago,

they're really enjoying their new diet.

Chinella is pushing his way to the front of the queue,

asserting his dominance already.

He's growing much bigger than his sister, Juba,

and will make sure he's always first in line for food.

Surya must be nearby.

Probably resting if she's dragged this huge carcass

into the trees for her cubs.

While Richard sits it out in the hope of seeing Surya again,

I'm still trying to find Badalo.

The day has begun to heat up.

We often found Badalo seeking shade under a small bridge,

so we decide to stake it out and see if he shows up."

And, you know, if it's a... If it's a go, if he's there,

then that's a really good thing,

because if we get the thumbs up from Joares,

it's a dry area, it's an open space.

So, fingers crossed, we might actually be able to get our tags out.

(LIGHT-HEARTED MUSIC)

"It's right by an empty lodge

and there are lots of shady spots where he could be hiding."

Wow.

Everyone's coming to see Badalo.

(LAUGHTER)

"But the presence of all these cows isn't filling me with much hope."

Moment of truth. Fingers crossed.

(COWS MOOING)

No Badalo.

He's definitely not under there, is he?

"We spend the next few hours

driving around Badalo's territory without any luck.

So I decide to check in with Richard.

He's still with Surya's cubs and now Mum is back."

So the jag is right behind me.

It's actually too close to get with the camera

'cause it's less than five metres away.

So I'm going to quickly put the lens on now.

"After a frustrating day not finding Badalo,

I have jaguar envy.

As Richard is nearby, we decide to take a pause in our search for Badalo

and catch up with reliable Surya and her beautiful cubs."

We are going to the left side... OK.

..and park there, to see the situation.OK.

Over there. There, there, there.

"It's my first real jaguar sighting of the day."

They just disappear in the grass.

The long grass.

Look at that.

You can just about see Surya sat now in the long grass

and the two cubs are just joining her.

But she's pushed out of this bush here,

they're just waiting and seeing what she's doing.

"Juba and her brother Chinella are now around six months old.

This flooded environment will be totally new to them.

Surya is teaching them how the long grass is great

for hiding from trouble or for staging an ambush attack."

(Oh, yeah. Wow.)

They are so much bigger.

These two cubs, you know, we've seen them be quite curious,

aware of their surroundings, bold.

But they are so much bigger

since just a few months ago when we were here.

"They've had a proper growth spurt.

I do love seeing these two out in the open with Mum.

They're always so comfortable around us."

I can already tell that they are way more bold.

They came straight up to the bonnet of this car.

"Surya is moving towards an impassable area

and there's still been no sign of Badalo.

We decide to call it a day.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow."

(PEACEFUL MUSIC)

"We're up early, hoping today's the day we get lucky and collar a jaguar.

All four teams are out, and today I'm riding with Bea.

It's all hands on deck to find the elusive Badalo.

Although, I'm now beginning to accept it's luck of the draw

as to who I'll fit my tag onto.

We make our way back to Badalo's territory and his beloved bridge,

but as we've yet to see him there on this trip,

I'm not holding out too much hope.

However, we have been left with a clue."

(LIZZIE GASPS) Yes! Whoa!

Let's have a look.

"I've spotted some paw prints and they look fresh."

So here you've got a huge...

..track. You can see it really clearly.

Just there, got the back pad and then the toes.

So it's very much going that direction.

And that's a very, very big print.

We know this is Badalo's area

so I wouldn't be surprised if...

it's probably Badalo-sized.

"They're heading away from the bridge

so we're going to follow them and see where they take us.

A few kilometres down the road, we're in luck."

"This guy isn't Badalo but it is a male."

Carai?

It looked like. What?

Big male.

Good spot.

"Carai is another male vying for dominance here.

His territory overlaps with Badalo's.

Unfortunately, he disappears into the bushes.

But then we get an exciting call on the radio."

Nice.

Chipa just announced that he just spotted Acerola

on the open in a dry area,

which sounds like a good situation for free charging.

"Acerola is a cousin of Badalo's who I met last time I was here.

I'd be really happy with the tag on him...

but with everything changing so quickly,

I just hope our luck hasn't run out.

When we arrive, Joares is already prepping the dart in anticipation

and we've had instruction to hang back."

They are right next to Acerola.

So that looks like a really good potential...

position for collaring.

Joares is assessing- Oh, my God!

What?

(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)

Three? Three jaguars.

What? There's something going on here.

The other car just radio us and told us

well, Acerola is that little head

and there are the two jaguars which are mating.

Mating!

"It's Ferinha, with an as-yet-unidentified male."

(GROWLING)

(We can hear a bit of growling.)

(A bit of... I'm not sure what that was.)

(It didn't sound like mating.)

Maybe a mating attempt.

But we're being really quiet because they're up and they're moving around.

The vet, Joares, is in position.

He's assessing, and they'll update us as to what he's gonna do next.

Huh? (RADIO CHATTER)

"Then we get confirmation of the other male's identity."

What? Who is mating...

No... It's him.

Acerola is mating with Ferinha? No. Badalo actually.

Badalo is mating?

They got closer to the animal and they could properly identify him.

I can't believe it.

Badalo is mating currently with Ferinha...

Yes. ..and Acerola is here, too?

He's nearby, yes.

Oh, my gosh. Badalo.

Just when you think he doesn't deliver the goods,

Badalo comes through.

"This is quite the turn of events,

but not as surprising as you might think.

Over the past few months, Lili and the team have seen

Badalo and Acerola's territories overlapping more and more,

and witnessed them sharing females in what could be a coalition."

And the idea of this male coalition is really framed around the fact

there are so many great resources here, including lots of females.

And that density driving this really unique behaviour that you're seeing here.

"Then, all of a sudden, I hear Joares take a shot."

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Look at that!

Running, running.

"But who has he darted?"

(JOARES SPEAKING PORTUGUESE)

We just had confirmation over the radio

that the dart is successfully in the butt of Badalo.

After all of that, you know,

a bit of confusion around who was here, we're back to Badalo.

Can't wait to get actually in there and to get that tag on that collar.

"But I have another job to do first.

While the vet follows Badalo to check he's fully sedated,

we need to keep our eyes on the other two jaguars."

So Acerola's up.

So that has added another spanner in the works.

It's really important that everyone is safe and that the jaguars are safe.

And... (CHUCKLES)

Acerola's sniffing. Did you see that?

"He'll be trying to locate Ferinha through her scent,

but we don't want him stumbling into the vet team."

I wonder, if he starts heading in that direction,

suddenly everyone's got another problem.

"Acerola starts showing off his Flehmen response...

drawing air into his smell-sense organ

which increases the intensity of the scent left by Ferinha and Badalo."

So I think the team are concerned right now not to spook him off

but just kind of slowly shape where he travels,

avoiding that area where the vets are, where Badalo is sedated.

Phew. It's all going on. Very tense.

So much to consider here.

"Acerola is constantly putting his head down,

keeping on the scent trail."

Acerola is on a mission.

He's picked up pace and the way he's striding over

in the direction of Badalo and Ferinha...

Slightly worrying right now,

for the vet's safety, for the team.

"It's not uncommon for Badalo and Acerola

to be seen in the same area.

But with Badalo sedated,

the team can't be sure it won't lead to an aggressive encounter."

(TENSE MUSIC)

I didn't expect this to be going on. This is another level of drama.

All we have to do is try and keep him away as much as we can from that area

because we really don't want him getting too close.

It's going to add in so many additional issues and worries.

This is not great news.

"Acerola is just 100 metres from the vet team.

But suddenly he seems to pick up the scent he was after...

..and makes a beeline for Ferinha, who is further away by the pond."

Oh, wow!

Oh, god. Straight in.

Oh, my God. Straight in, mating.

I cannot believe this.

He's mouthing. (JAGUARS GROWLING)

"This biting of the back of Ferinha's neck is fascinating.

It's Acerola's way of stimulating her into ovulation."

Wow!

She's rolling around.

That is it. That's the switch.

"Jaguars are not monogamous.

Acerola will have mated with Ferinha before

and he's taking his turn again.

While his comrade Badalo is safely with the vet team."

(ENGINE STARTS)

"Time to head over and start setting up the tag.

I leave Richard behind to keep an eye on the new lovebirds."

(GROWLS)

I can see the team now.

The vet is working on Badalo in the back of that truck.

Oh, my heart is racing a little bit. (CHUCKLES)

So it will be the first time we get up close to Badalo,

which is a really strange feeling.

I don't know anymore!

I think everything so far has gone right

and so much rides on making sure that,

you know, all these pieces fit together.

So to see it happen is a really thrilling, you know, heart-pumping experience.

But to say I'm not nervous would be a lie.

"Joares and the research team have begun collecting samples."

"This is the third time

Badalo has been sedated to have a collar fitted.

Collecting blood, hair, urine and faecal samples

adds to their understanding of Badalo's lineage,

and shows how he's reacting and adapting to the environment around him."

At this moment, we collect as much information as possible.

Then we compare it with the information about the other jaguars.

"Before I meet Badalo,

I need to program the tag and the drop-off mechanism.

Time is of the essence."

This will be placed on the collar, the GPS collar of Badalo.

This is a step that can't be done any time before we know

that Badalo has been sedated.

This is an important step for us.

I cannot wait to actually meet Badalo up close.

Bit overwhelmed by it all

because he's been such a fantastic jaguar to follow

and such an important male here in this landscape.

That's all ready to go now and it's been activated so,

yeah, now we have to just get this on the collar.

"It's finally time to meet my hero jaguar, face-to-face."

(EXHALES) (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

I just... It's everything.

It's the tail, the rosettes,

the size of the paws.

This is a really...

special moment being this close to Badalo.

"Then the moment I've been waiting for,

getting my tag onto Badalo.

I can't believe this is finally happening."

This will be the first time this tri-accelerometers

has been deployed on a jaguar in the wild, which is pretty exciting.

We're just doing the final, tightening the final screws,

they need to be completely secure.

We've set everything up so that's pretty much it.

We'll come into the final steps

before we then leave Badalo and let him come around.

All the way around? Yes.

(ENGINE STARTS)

"Time to move Badalo to the shelter of the bushes

as a safe place for him to come round.

It could be several hours before he's fully up and back to normal."

Everything go OK, Joares? Everything is OK.

We are just finishing to do the last check.

So we have water all around and this is the dry place

and today is hot so then that's why we move him here.

"Time to leave our leading male to wake up in peace."

Today was a great success. Yeah, it was great.

"When Badalo wakes up, he may make his way towards Ferinha,

hoping to take his turn to mate with her.

So I decide to head back to Richard,

who's been keeping an eye on her and Acerola."

So just here by the pond.

This is amazing to watch, seeing Acerola and Ferinha mate.

They're mating quite frequently.

Usually it's only about every 20 minutes,

but these two are going at it every six or five minutes or so.

So it's fascinating.

Yeah, Ferinha definitely seems to be keen on Acerola.

And maybe she's his new favourite.

"When we get there, we can't see them."

Oh, wow!

"But I can hear that they're still at it."

(ROARING)

Oh, there you go.

Roaring. (JAGUAR ROARS)

It's not far from us. Yeah.

It's right behind us.

"We wait by the bushes for over an hour, listening to the sounds.

But then, all of a sudden what we're hearing changes."

That's not a mating call.

No. (JAGUARS GROWLING)

This is some aggressive behaviour. Yeah.

During that mating, it can be aggressive sometimes.

"The ruckus is still coming from the bushes,

but we spot Ferinha on the other side of the pond."

Oh, there, there, there, there!

That's Ferinha? Let's check.

That looks like Ferinha. That's Ferinha.

She's gonna swim.

(MELLOW GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING)

She's probably cooling off.

"But if Ferinha's over there..."

(JAGUARS GROWLING) "..who's in the bushes with Acerola?"

It sounds like there might be another jaguar.

They're getting so close. They are... maybe ten metres away

just in the bush here, but moving this way.

Just if anything, we just stay very still.

OK.

Let's see what happens.

(GROWLING NEARING) (About five metres away.)

Stay still. Yeah.

Everyone stay still, stay still.

(GROWLING)

You can feel it.

Whoa!

"This is Acerola.

So who is he fighting with?"

(GROWLING CONTINUES)

Oh, my gosh...

We saw Acerola pop out just then, have a look at us.

We can't figure out if it's two males fighting,

but there's so much aggression right now.

That roar, though, that you feel, it is just like bone-shaking.

It runs through your whole body.

It's really hard to describe,

but that's when you understand their true power.

Their... Their true presence is when you feel

the power of that roar running through your body.

There's just nothing like it.

"Then Pedro checks for a signal nearby,

and there's a surprising result."

Badalo's signal is so strong. No.

That changes things. (CHUCKLES)

"There's no set length of time

for a jaguar to wake up after being darted.

But it looks like Badalo couldn't wait to get back on his feet."

So Badalo would have had his rest,

he would have relaxed for the day and then come around

and then headed back to basically mate with Ferinha

and found Acerola mating with Ferinha.

So no wonder they're fighting, no wonder there's conflict.

"Although Badalo and Acerola are thought to be forming this coalition,

it doesn't stop them falling out over a female."

(GASPS) (Did you hear that?)

There he is, there he is, there he is!

"It's Badalo and he's wearing his new accessory."

Well spotted, Lizzie.

Wow!

That's the first time seeing the tag on Badalo.

Ah, look!

OK. He's going in the water.

Badalo is probably going to follow now across the route

that Ferinha took across the water.

Let's hope that tag's waterproof.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Look at him going for a swim.

Just a little cooldown. That's beautiful.

"Badalo has a new cut on his face from his scrap with Acerola.

If they were full-on rivals,

an encounter like that could have been a lot worse.

But he's looking strong."

This is such a good sighting of Badalo and this is such interesting behaviour that we're seeing.

Badalo is quite obviously aware of Acerola and Ferinha,

and, you know, he's trying to head around this pond,

probably coming straight for us to get to Ferinha.

Everyone still.

That is the most incredible thing I have ever seen.

Badalo patrolling,

heading to Ferinha with the tag on,

and just coming around from a huge day already.

I'm having goosebumps.

It's just... That's a reward like nothing else.

Yeah. What a cat he is.

"Getting to see all these behaviours,

swimming, fighting, patrolling,

and knowing my tag is collecting data from it all is just phenomenal."

Three months ago, there were lots of questions

around whether Badalo would be the next big dominant male.

But now his actions really speak for themselves.

He is proving to be a really impressive male.

He's large in size

and potentially going to grow a lot more over the next year.

So, again, who knows?

But if I was to bet on it,

I'd say Badalo has got a really good chance here.

"And if he is in a coalition with Acerola,

they'll make a strong team against any of the bigger males in the area."

This also does lead me to ask, well, some of the males do form,

it seems, these coalitions here.

But, one thing's for sure, this is really remarkable.

To have two big males overlapping in this way is just...

you know, not something you see anywhere else.

"With Badalo, Acerola and Ferinha heading into the bushes,

it's time to head back."

That was incredible, wasn't it? It was amazing. Yeah.

"But this is just the beginning.

In seven days, I'll need to retrieve Badalo's collar

from wherever it drops off,

and hopefully get to analyse

jaguar behaviour like never before."

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