Original subtitles

In this film,

elephants take us closer to tigers than ever before.

They enter the tigers' world armed only with spy-cams.

Using these new devices, they help tell the story of cubs growing up.

They are our spies in the jungle.

Elephants have been used for centuries to search for tigers.

There is no better way to enter the tigers' dark and mysterious world.

India's few remaining tigers live in dense forest,

and that makes filming their behaviour one of the last great wildlife challenges.

This is Pench Tiger Reserve in central India,

one of the tigers' last strongholds.

Even here, tigers are elusive.

But fortunately, they often leave their mark.

From these footprints, the mahouts, who ride the elephants,

can tell both the sex of a tiger and how recently it passed by.

These are fresh.

Time to deploy a secret weapon.

Trunk-cam is specially designed to film tigers

in high-definition while on the move.

It's carried by what must be the ultimate all-terrain camera vehicle, an elephant.

These eco-friendly 4x4s can take trunk-cam wherever a tiger goes,

and it can start filming the moment the alarm calls of prey animals

give away the tiger's location.

The human camera crew film from another elephant

and adjust trunk-cam using remote control.

The elephants give us extraordinary access to the tigers.

They are, after all, natural inhabitants of the forest,

so the tigers aren't at all phased by them.

These innovative filming techniques have made it possible,

over a period of three years,

to capture the most intimate portrait of tigers ever seen.

They gave us astounding insights into the tigers' private world

and captured behaviour never witnessed before.

Our story begins with a tantalising glimpse of something very special,

a cub, just 10 days old.

Wild cubs as young as this have never been filmed before.

For their first six weeks,

most cubs usually hide away in their dens,

hardly glimpsing daylight.

These are unusually adventurous.

They seem totally unaware of the dangers.

Although their eyes are just opening,

they won't see clearly for another six weeks.

They're the mother's first litter,

and they're going to be quite a test for her.

The tigress must pick them up by the scruff of the neck.

It's a delicate operation.

A little too much pressure and she'll hurt her cub.

She can bite with the force of nearly 500 kilos,

but this requires the gentlest touch.

Tigers usually have two or three cubs.

Four are quite a handful,

and these already seem more challenging than most.

The ratio between the sexes among newborns is usually equal.

True to form, two of these cubs are male and two are female.

It will be rare indeed for all four of them to reach maturity.

Many dangers lie ahead.

At this size, they make a snack for even the smallest predator.

Their mother must make sure that everyone is accounted for.

With two back in the den and one on its way,

there's only one straggler left to worry about.

The cub's contact cry makes sure he's not forgotten.

As long as the cubs call, their mother is compelled to keep retrieving them,

but this would try any mother's patience.

A young cub's life is very precarious.

Had the mother been away hunting at a moment like this,

the outcome could have been very different.

She's clearly going to be a devoted mother.

But she still has a lot to learn.

This is not the way to do it.

Filming such behaviour is unprecedented.

It gives us an extraordinary opportunity

to follow these cubs as they grow.

To do that, the elephant crew will need more spy-cams.

As its name suggests, tusk-cam is mounted on the elephant's tusk.

It's smaller than trunk-cam, so it can be carried at all times,

perfect for shots on the move.

It's usually the first camera to film a tiger,

and it now has a local celebrity in its sights.

This is Charger, the father of the cubs.

Worryingly, he got his name from his readiness to charge.

It's clearly a job for trunk-cam, a spy-cam with hidden talents.

Charger will attack without provocation,

but trunk-cam is specifically designed to look harmless.

Charger reacts surprisingly calmly to this motorised tree trunk.

He's less a tiger, more like a pussycat.

Even the camera's pans and zooms provoke little reaction.

But then something strange catches Charger's eye.

He sees what he thinks is another tiger.

It could be an expensive time for a piece of kit

that costs as much as a small house.

But Charger isn't easily intimidated,

which is good news for his cubs.

More cubs are killed by rival males than anything else.

But while Charger is around, his cubs are safe.

The mother and cubs rarely meet the father

and he never joins her on the hunt.

Not that she needs much help.

Pench has some of the highest concentrations of game in all India,

so this tigress never has to travel far for a meal.

Even so, bringing up four cubs is not going to be easy,

especially ones as adventurous as these.

Some tiger territories may cover as much as 300 square kilometres,

but in prime hunting country like this,

as little as 15 square kilometres can be enough.

Within this, she knows all the hotspots for game.

Parts of the forest positively teem with life.

But more prey means more eyes on the lookout.

Frustration is all too frequent.

Fortunately, in this neck of the woods,

there are plenty of alternatives.

She just has to keep walking.

Her aim is to stalk within 30 metres without being seen.

If there's a choice, she'll select larger deer, like sambar.

A sambar stag is the best prize of all.

Most hunts, like this one, end in disappointment.

While she's on the prowl, her cubs should be safely tucked up in their den,

but these are no ordinary cubs.

Now's he's in great danger.

With his mother away,

any passing predator would jump at the chance of such an easy meal.

Leopards kill tiger cubs without hesitation.

Perhaps they see them as future competitors.

Pench Park has a thriving population of leopards.

They far outnumber tigers, so a lost cub is in real danger.

His best defence is to remain still.

Hiding under a leaf is a somewhat novel alternative.

Fortunately, mother tigers never leave their young cubs for long.

But they don't usually have such a problem recognising them.

Her cubs seem to have a death wish.

If they're to survive, they have a lot to learn.

We will do our best to watch them for the next two years

as they acquire the skills they will need to survive.

But now the monsoon brings filming to a halt.

-The park is closed,

and the camera elephants are redeployed on anti-poaching patrols.

The monsoon refreshes the land

and refills the reservoirs that will be so valuable during the drier months.

The park is transformed into a lush, green oasis.

But despite the tranquillity,

the heavy rains make this a hazardous time for small cubs.

Ten weeks pass and the camera elephants return to filming duties.

After a long search, they find the tigress.

But worryingly, her cubs are nowhere to be seen.

The elephants follow her towards one of her favourite den sites.

It's good news.

At least three cubs have survived.

And then a fourth.

The cubs are now three months old.

They have stopped hiding in their dens and venture out every day,

but only when their mother is around.

They sometimes accompany her on hunting trips,

and they move from one den site to another

as she travels around her territory.

Play, it seems, is never far from their mind.

It's good for practising hunting skills,

and it's also a lot of fun.

While they get rid of their surplus energy,

the mother has some time for herself.

Even at this age, her cubs can be quite a handful.

All this play develops their strength and co-ordination,

and it occupies a lot of their time.

They're growing fast,

putting on around three quarters of a kilo each week.

Although they look small next to their mother,

they are already twice the weight of a domestic cat.

They've just started to take meat,

but their mother's milk still provides most of their nourishment.

With the cubs out and about,

keeping up with them is a considerable challenge

for the camera team, but help is on its way.

Meet log-cam, a small remote camera

that can be deployed quickly by the elephants themselves.

It can be placed around waterholes or on animal paths and tracks.

The camera is triggered by any movement of a nearby animal.

Left alone, it can lie in wait for days.

This langur monkey is transfixed by her reflection in the lens.

These spy-cams are now deployed 24/7,

recording everything that happens in front of them.

Even though some see through their disguise,

the cameras between them capture a wealth of extraordinary behaviour.

Spotted deer and langurs find safety in numbers and often travel around together.

Log-cam reveals just how unruly the deer's neighbours can be.

Despite the rough and tumble,

sharing sentry duties makes sense when a tiger's on the prowl.

Time to get baby on board.

With eyes everywhere, there is literally nowhere to hide.

They have a special alarm call for a tiger,

and it's never too young to learn its meaning.

These incessant calls follow the tigress wherever she goes,

making it difficult for her to launch a surprise attack.

With a tiger in their midst, monkeys have at least one way to show their disgust.

As soon as the tigers relax, the excitement begins to die down.

The tigers are used to playing a waiting game.

The forest gradually quietens.

Its inhabitants live under constant threat from tigers,

so they must make the most of any periods of calm.

This is the moment the tigress has been waiting for.

Any film of tigers hunting is rare,

and forests are very difficult locations

because the vegetation obscures the view.

But the elephant cams can film even in the deepest forest.

Water holes make the perfect spot for an ambush.

Tigers seize any hunting opportunity,

but if they are undisturbed, they prefer to hunt in the day.

The jungle early-warning system is back in operation.

The calls put the whole forest on edge

and make the tigress' job more difficult.

Faced with a choice, she favours the larger sambar deer,

but the monkey alarms are making them nervous.

As deer have poor colour vision,

a tiger can be within sniffing distance,

but still be unseen in the grass.

She relies on her camouflage, which breaks up her outline,

but in the midst of the herd, many eyes are watching.

The sambar signals her unease to her companions,

but she's still unsure of what she sees.

All seems lost.

But in thick forest, the tigress still has everything to play for.

She uses the river valleys as cover to cut off the deer's escape.

For the deer, out of sight is out of mind.

She's regained the advantage of surprise.

When running, she can cover nine metres in each leap.

But even so, the closer she can get, the better.

She gets it.

She kills by throttling.

She is already having to double the number of kills she makes,

for the cubs have developed quite an appetite.

The cubs are now 14 weeks old

and need all the meat they can get.

They can eat over a kilo of meat each day,

the equivalent of 20 large steaks between them.

It's just as well Pench Reserve has such a thriving population

of prey animals.

Because of its value as a sanctuary for tigers,

this old teak forestry plantation was made a reserve in 1992,

and now it has many other secretive inhabitants, as the spy-cams discover.

A family of wild boar.

As well as capturing unusual behaviour of other animals,

the spy cams are able to film the tigers when the elephants are off duty.

Indian rock pythons will eat small cubs.

They also frequent the kind of rocky outcrops where tigers make their dens.

At this age, the cubs are still an easy meal for every predator around.

It will be nearly two years before they become as formidable as their mother.

Very few people have seen how an adult tiger deals with a python.

What will be the outcome?

Although the python isn't protected by venom, it does have a nasty bite.

They say curiosity killed the cat.

Tigers aren't used to animals that bite back.

Filming so much extraordinary tiger behaviour in such a short time

has been a triumph.

But it's time for the elephants to take another break.

They will be away for another two months.

It's now December.

The elephants have been back on duty for five days,

but so far, they haven't found the mother and cubs.

Then tusk-cam spots the family.

The cubs are now five months old

and all seem in perfect health.

Tusk-cam has a stabilised camera system,

but when the elephant stops, he often adds his own support,

turning his trunk into a monopod,

which steadies the camera's image.

Then trunk-cam spots something that could disturb the peace.

A pangolin has blundered into the tiger's lair.

Despite his reptilian-like scales,

this rare creature is actually a mammal.

But his armoured plates provide little protection against tigers.

The pangolin senses danger and rolls into a protective ball.

It's easy to be brave when Mum's around,

especially as part of their education is to investigate everything that moves.

But even with some hefty reinforcements available,

bravery is best tempered with caution.

The pangolin's strange appearance has proved more effective than his armour.

The Indian jungle hides other rarely-seen creatures, too.

The sloth bear is the only bear to carry her young on her back.

Hitching a ride makes sense.

The cubs' mother may travel 15 kilometres a day

looking for the nests of bees and termites.

As well as eating insects,

the bears are mainly vegetarians,

so this palm squirrel has little to fear.

The cubs scavenge for easier pickings amongst the rocks.

Film of wild sloth bears is rare,

but getting as close as this is very rare indeed.

These bears are seldom seen in the day,

so they're often described as nocturnal.

Only in undisturbed places like this does their true nature become apparent.

Her shaggy coat not only gives her young hitchhikers something to cling onto,

it also protects her against attacks by the stinging insects

whose nests she raids for food.

As they get bigger, the cubs have to take turns hitching a ride.

It must be difficult scratching an itch

when you're wearing a full-length fur coat.

Her cubs are six months old,

and she'll carry them for another three months.

They're already big enough to be a nuisance.

Even the best mothers need to take time out,

and this one's youngsters are double trouble.

The tigress has her own boisterous cubs to cope with.

They're now confirmed carnivores and eagerly feed on every kill.

A lone tiger will kill around once every eight days,

but with hungry mouths to feed,

she has to increase her hit rate.

Four cubs present a special challenge.

An adult tiger on its own can eat 30 kilos of meat in a single meal,

so even a large carcass can leave little to go round.

The cubs take what they can in a single sitting.

They can never be sure when the next meal might arrive.

Even if their mother can keep up with their demand now,

things are only going to get more difficult.

They need their strength.

At this age, they still face many unexpected dangers.

The sloth bear has a reputation for using attack as its first line of defence.

The outcome of this encounter is uncertain.

The tiger's advance is cautious.

Any animal that holds its ground is something to be wary of.

It's a stand-off.

Neither seems quite sure what to do.

The bear's nerve breaks first.

To capture such behaviour is a great stroke of luck,

but with so many cameras deployed at any one time,

there are always plenty of surprises.

Another leopard with cubs spots her reflection in the lens of the spy-cam.

She quickly realises there's nothing to worry about,

and her five-week-old cubs are reassured by her confidence.

Few leopard cubs as young as this have ever been filmed before,

let alone so close and so at ease.

Her cubs will stay with her for just over a year

before they're old enough to find territories of their own.

Tiger cubs stay with their mother for far longer.

The earliest a male cub might leave is at 20 months old,

but the female cubs may stay around for as much as two years.

All in all, they have a lot of learning ahead of them.

They have to hone their hunting skills

and the spotted deer fawn provides them with good practice.

Learning to drag a carcass is not just a game.

Adult tigers like to eat their kills in cover, away from scavenging birds.

Meat is now the major part of their diet,

although they will still suckle if given a chance.

But at this age,

their mother can find their sharp teeth quite painful.

It's not only the cubs that are unsettling the tigress.

The day is warming up fast and it's making her restless.

The midday heat affects everyone.

It even draws one of India's rarest animals to the water hole,

the red dog, or dhole.

Red dogs once formed large hunting packs over 100 strong.

Today, even these small family groups are a rare sight.

A large pack can even kill a tiger.

One of them finds the camera.

The elephant crew face some serious competition.

Leopards take pride of place at the watering hole.

But even they defer to a tiger.

The tiger is twice her size, but the leopard's agility gives her the edge.

A tree provides a quick escape route,

but the tiger isn't easily defeated.

Now the tiger's size is actually her handicap.

The leopard just has to sit it out.

She doesn't have to wait for long.

In the heat of the day, a tiger has better things to do.

At the hottest time of the day,

she has just one thing on her mind.

Tigers are the only big cats that like water.

In the summer months, a jungle pool really is cool for these cats.

They often spend the middle of the day just chilling out in favourite spots like this.

Chasing leopards is thirsty work.

But her rival is now far from the tiger's mind.

The leopard will not forget so easily.

She's received a powerful warning.

Her cubs are too close for comfort.

As she leaves, she catches one last glimpse of her reflection.

Tigers can be very uncomfortable in the heat,

a trait that suggests that they originated in much colder regions.

They can still be found as far north as Siberia.

Despite the heat,

the tigers in Pench seem to have found their own bit of paradise.

In the open forest,

the deer's constant grazing creates areas of park-like grassland.

These pastures make the best hunting grounds.

At this age, the cubs sometimes follow their mother when she hunts.

By watching and copying, they learn her techniques.

As she selects a target, they try out some moves of their own.

But they must also learn that this is a time for patience.

They instinctively adopt the stalking posture,

but they refine their technique by copying their mother.

A tiger can cover nearly a metre and a half in a single stride.

Even when she's walking slowly,

the cubs have trouble keeping up.

With the deer so close, the stakes are high.

The cubs seem to be making all the right moves.

The tigress is now within striking distance,

but the deer knows something is up.

This is not the time to lose your nerve.

Lessons are being learned the hard way,

but the cubs now know when to leave it to the expert.

This time, the tigress leaves her students behind.

The deep cover allows her to move faster than usual.

She changes tack.

Her best weapon is surprise.

She could be anywhere.

She kills just two metres from the camera elephant.

It's a sambar.

Plenty of food to go round.

Tigers often pluck their prey before eating it,

a habit they share with leopards.

Taking the carcass into cover will conceal it from scavengers.

The cubs immediately show how quickly they learn from their mother.

He's already making quite a good job of removing the hair.

But it's a big carcass, and there are other hunting moves to practice.

And this is a game in which others can join.

The cubs' play is becoming more aggressive.

They are already showing the qualities

that will make them one of the world's top predators.

Having watched them progress so far,

it seems a good time to take a filming break.

Shooting resumes in May.

Neither the cubs nor their mother have been seen for days.

The camera team investigate.

Spy-cams are placed near all their favourite den sites.

Just a slight adjustment is needed.

This was a good choice.

The cubs use the shade and wet sand

besides the boulder to shelter from the heat.

But worryingly, there is no sign of the mother.

A second camera in a nearby pond finds only the other cubs.

This spy-cam is camouflaged to resemble one of the boulders,

but the cubs see through its disguise.

Despite occasionally being spotted,

the spy-cams have already proved their worth.

Even this cub quickly loses its curiosity.

A third hidden camera shows that play between the cubs

is increasingly geared to fighting and hunting.

Even a stick is used as a substitute for prey.

-The spy-cam also shows

just how alert the cubs are to danger when they're alone.

They've picked up the alarm calls of monkeys.

A predator must be approaching,

and they seem to know it's not their mother.

Their nearby den provides them with cover,

but with their mother nowhere to be seen, this is a worrying situation.

The spy-cam reveals the threat.

It's their arch rival, a leopard, at their water hole.

These home-alone cubs are now in grave danger,

and the leopard is in no rush to leave.

In the next Spy In The Jungle, we will see how the cubs fared

in this latest challenge to their young lives.

Our elephant camera crew will also reveal

many other remarkable moments in a tiger's life.