- 8 months ago
Big Cat Tales documents present-day lives of families of the lions, leopards and cheetahs of the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Each episode follows individual characters, drawing the viewer in on a personal journey.
BIG CAT TALES
Ep1 - Rebirth in the Mara
The Marsh Pride welcomes new cubs which they must protect from an encroaching buffalo herd,Malaika the cheetah is on the hunt to provide for her young.
BIG CAT TALES
Ep1 - Rebirth in the Mara
The Marsh Pride welcomes new cubs which they must protect from an encroaching buffalo herd,Malaika the cheetah is on the hunt to provide for her young.
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00We're Jonathan and Angela Scott, the Big Cat People from Kenya.
00:05We're based in the Maasai Mara, which has to be the best place in Africa to see lions, leopards and cheetahs.
00:11In fact, we've been obsessed by these great predators for most of our life.
00:15Now we want to share their story with you, to reveal the intimate details of the characters of these different cats,
00:21to share in the highs and lows of their struggle for survival.
00:25I've often said that if I had just one day left in my life, I would spend it right here in the Maasai Mara,
00:31in the company of these amazing big cats.
00:37There's something truly extraordinary about living a life alongside the big cats.
00:43They represent some of the world's most highly evolved predators.
00:48The famous marsh pride of lions are particularly special to us.
00:53We've been following their story for over 40 years.
00:57We've watched their cubs turn into mothers, and mothers into grandmothers.
01:02They're not just big cats to us, we know them as individuals.
01:07Charm.
01:09Askari.
01:11Moja.
01:12Each a cat with a story of its own.
01:15Bahati is a leopard we've known since she was a tiny cub.
01:20We knew her mother Olive, and her grandmother Bella.
01:24Her lineage runs deep along the banks of the Talik River.
01:28Cheetahs have roamed the Mara for thousands of years, with Malaika representing the epitome of predator evolution.
01:38Alongside us is our good friend Jackson Olliluseya.
01:42He's spent his life in the Mara, and these characters are as special to him as they are to us.
01:49Join us as we draw back the curtain on the rarely seen details of their lives.
01:57The Mara is about 1,500 square kilometers, that's about 600 square miles.
02:02And it is a predator's paradise.
02:05You want big cats?
02:06This is the place.
02:07Lions, leopards and cheetahs galore.
02:11The Mara is about 1,500 square kilometers, that's about 600 square miles.
02:16And it is a predator's paradise.
02:19You want big cats?
02:20This is the place.
02:21Lions, leopards and cheetahs galore.
02:28And it's part of a much bigger area.
02:31We call it the Mara Serengeti ecosystem.
02:33And the wonder of it, in this day and age, no fences.
02:37Nothing to block the movement of the animals.
02:42And in the dry season, we will have hundreds of thousands of animals moving from the Serengeti into the Mara.
02:53This is the Mara River, and it flows all the way down through the Masai Mara, south into the Serengeti, and ends up in Lake Victoria.
03:01And it isn't just important to the resident animals here in the Mara.
03:04It is the lifeblood for the migration.
03:07When it moves up here in the dry season, they can always find water here.
03:16It's difficult to describe to people the hold that this place has over Angie and myself.
03:21You don't need words to describe this.
03:24It just resonates.
03:25It touches your heart.
03:27And then you add in the wonder of all those animals, the great migration, the big cats.
03:33There's just nowhere like it.
03:54We call this place Musiara Marsh.
03:57And right now, it's lion central.
04:00I mean, we've got a number of lionesses.
04:02We've got cubs.
04:03We've got two males behind us there.
04:05If you love big cats, then this is the place.
04:08And we've been watching lions here, well, since I first came here in 1977.
04:19Don't you get the feeling that it's a really happy pride?
04:23I mean, I think it's a wonderful time for the marsh pride right now,
04:27because you've got all the females really looking healthy and happy
04:31and all giving birth around about the same time,
04:35which is the best thing for a pride.
04:49So it's no coincidence that we've got so many lions in this little area,
04:53because this is the heart of the marsh pride territory.
04:56And when I say the heart, it's where they feel safest.
05:00It's the nursery ground.
05:02It's the breeding center.
05:08And the males are here, too, very focused on what's going on,
05:12because this is their first generation of cubs, too.
05:19These males are the new pride males.
05:21They've only been here for maybe six months.
05:24And so the bonding process between the females and the males is terribly important,
05:29because unlike the females who live together and who are related,
05:33these females aren't related to these males.
05:35So in some ways it's a question of getting to know the males.
05:47You didn't quite make it.
05:49OK, so how are those cubs going to do?
05:55You see the way with the males, one of them moves, then the other one wants to follow.
05:59They want to stay together.
06:02And that's something you see a lot with lions.
06:04You're safer when you've got backup.
06:11Go on, little one. You're going to be brave.
06:14You can do it.
06:17Yes!
06:18Made a much better job of it than the adult.
06:22There she goes.
06:23Oh, nice.
06:25Oh, dear, dear, dear.
06:30OK, one way or another, jump it, crawl through it.
06:34One to go.
06:37It really doesn't like it.
06:42In you go.
06:44Oh, right on your tummy.
06:46Oh, my goodness.
06:48OK, mission accomplished.
06:52Right now the marsh pride just look incredible.
06:57And there's so much going on.
06:59And that, for Angie and me, is the fascination of watching these big cats.
07:03Always something happening.
07:05And watching creatures that we know as well as some of our friends.
07:09What could be better than that?
07:14The key to working with big cats is teamwork.
07:17So we've prepped all our friends amongst the drivers and the guides
07:20to feed us back information on what the big cats are doing.
07:23Now, there's one person who's crucial to this operation,
07:27and his name is Jackson Oliluseya.
07:36Hey, Johnny, Andy.
07:38Hey, this is getting tough for an old man.
07:40Oh, well, well, welcome to them.
07:42I am a Maasai, living in the Maasai Mara.
07:45This is my home. This is where I live. This is where I grew up.
07:49I have been with these cats for all of my life.
07:52Since they were cubs, they were playing.
07:54They were little babies with their parents.
07:56We have lived with these animals.
07:59We understand them.
08:01We, as the Maasai people, we love them.
08:05We protect them.
08:07Because it's our treasure.
08:10And today, I'm going to introduce you to a very special cat.
08:16This is a cheetah that I've known for a long time.
08:20Malaika.
08:23She had a little bit of waking up of the cubs by licking,
08:27you know, love, love, love,
08:29telling them that, yeah, it's time to get up.
08:32The cub is loving mummy, and the mother is doing the same.
08:36They will spend their first 18 months with the mother,
08:41and then they will be independent.
08:43And they have to spend their entire life alone.
08:46It's important to have that bond.
08:48Now, the cubs are up before even the mother.
08:51Wow.
08:52They have the little rough neck.
08:55It's for camouflage purposes.
08:57If you look at that little baby there,
08:59and you look at the grass up there,
09:01if the cub sits right tucked in,
09:03it just looks like a little mound of grass.
09:07Little mound of grass.
09:11We know Malaika killed a couple of days ago.
09:14She went at night, bam, killed something.
09:17And today, two days after,
09:20she probably will be thinking about food again.
09:23That's why she's up looking.
09:30You see that bite on the neck there?
09:33Practice. They're practicing to say,
09:35if you are a prey, if you are a tummy,
09:38that's how I'll grab you.
09:45The importance of having more than one cub in a litter
09:49is that they entertain one another, they play together,
09:52they help strengthen those muscles.
09:54Because just imagine one cub.
09:57She'll be so bored trying to play with her mother.
10:00She's got other things in mind.
10:02Well, the cubs entertain and just run around.
10:22Cheetahs are runners.
10:24They run very, very fast, and they need the power.
10:30Look at the front legs and the back legs.
10:33Both of them are muscular and powerful.
10:37When they are running, they hit,
10:41and they need those muscles to hold and hit and treat the animal
10:46at a speed of up to 100 kilometers an hour.
11:01Leopards are like gold, but boy, they're tough.
11:05Yeah, so this is the Elaria Rock Lugger,
11:09intermittent watercourse.
11:11There's still some pools of water.
11:13It's been very dry.
11:15And the leopards love these.
11:17They'll walk down through the lugger itself
11:19or up amongst the bushes,
11:21and then they'll come back down again.
11:23They're very, very fast.
11:25They're very, very fast.
11:27They'll walk down through the lugger itself
11:29or up amongst the bushes,
11:31and they'll have their cubs tucked away sometimes in those bushes
11:34or in amongst the roots of a tree.
11:36And there's some beautiful big fig trees up here too,
11:39which the leopards love.
11:45I just want to check along here.
11:47Croton bushes, rocks, trees, perfect leopard country.
11:51One of my favorite places.
11:53But tough country to work because, as always with leopards,
11:56you know, they're not going to give anything away.
11:59You're trying to sort of always think like them.
12:02Where were they last week? Where will they be next week?
12:05Where are the favorite places they come for their cubs?
12:08Oh, my goodness, there she is.
12:17Even just a few moments in the company of a leopard, it's gold.
12:22It doesn't matter how many times you've seen them,
12:25there's something special.
12:30You see how careful she's being.
12:32Here come the cubs, across the gap.
12:34Going to join her.
12:36She'll probably move the minute it gets to her.
12:47Oh, what a beautiful, beautiful cat.
12:52Now the cubs are just holding tight.
12:54Mum's gone ahead. She's gone up to the kill.
12:57This is a good time to be actually moving.
13:05But this is great strategy on the part of the Olari female
13:08because it's very hot, quarter past two,
13:11the sun is overhead still,
13:13and so the likelihood that they would have problems
13:16from lions or hyenas is minimal.
13:21Wow, what a treat.
13:25You see, leopards don't like feeding together,
13:29so one cub has gone up, they'll rotate,
13:33and it's plucking the fur from this bushbuck
13:36so as it can feed on the rump.
13:42And see how the mum, see how Olari,
13:46is just content to lie at the bottom of the tree to guard the cubs.
13:51She's all eyes and ears in case danger is present.
13:56Hyenas, with that incredible sense of smell,
13:59could pick up the scent of that kill.
14:09That is gold.
14:11To see mum and the two cubs, because as the cubs get older,
14:14the greetings are perfunctory.
14:16They're more independent, they've got their own agenda.
14:19So to see Olari with both cubs, oh, I'm in heaven.
14:35But both cubs, I can see, have had a good meal already.
14:39That's a big kill, female bushbuck.
14:42Probably killed it last night.
14:50And this is the secret world of the leopard.
14:54This is the world that you so rarely see.
14:57In my first year in the Mara, I saw two leopards,
15:00one just a flash of spots at night.
15:03So you put in the time and you get the rewards.
15:09And just contrast this kind of behaviour
15:12with the world of the lion, with the social cat,
15:15where there's multiple females living together.
15:18This is a single mum looking after two cubs
15:22and doing incredibly well.
15:35You know, this is what it's all about for somebody like me.
15:39At the end of the day, 40 years, it all comes down to this.
15:43These incredible moments with big cats.
15:46And for me, top of the pile, icing on the cake,
15:50for every visitor who comes on safari,
15:53it's this cat right here.
16:14This is one of those absolutely magic mornings
16:18when you arrive and the pride is all together.
16:22I can't tell you how rare this actually is.
16:29We have our two males here.
16:32Askari, the one that we call soldier,
16:35is the one directly in front of me.
16:38And the one slightly away from the rest of the pride,
16:42we're calling him Mpoli-Mpoli, which means slowly, slowly.
16:46The cubs are a little bit wary of him.
16:50He just doesn't like to be messed with at all.
16:54And even though the female brought the cubs very gently to him,
16:59he's just not engaged at all.
17:03Whereas Askari, he's just good old dad.
17:06And you can see the females,
17:09they tend to gravitate towards this male.
17:12It's quite unusual, actually, because males, on the whole,
17:16they tend to keep themselves on the periphery of the pride.
17:26We're very lucky to have this male,
17:30We're very lucky at the moment
17:33to have lion cubs of this age to be observing.
17:37It's the best age of all because they never stop.
17:43That little male cub is completely fearless.
17:47He's getting disciplined by the male.
17:50He's not perturbed at all.
17:53And he'll just go back and back and back.
18:00They're constantly tussling, running, playing,
18:04interacting with the mothers, trying to interact with the males.
18:09And you slowly, as you're watching them,
18:12you begin to notice that they have very, very different personalities.
18:17We have two little boys and one little girl.
18:23The brother and sister are a little bit more confident
18:27than the single male.
18:30The single male cub is a little smaller
18:34and definitely shyer, more nervous.
18:40I mean, you wouldn't believe it now
18:43when they're all just so happily playing together.
18:47They're such a central part of this story
18:50that we've decided to name them Solo
18:53for the little single male cub
18:56and then the brother and sister Mojo and Bili.
18:59Mojo means first, and of course that would be the male cub,
19:03and then Bili, which is quite a sweet name for the little female.
19:11You know, a lion cub,
19:15you know, a lion pride is a very matriarchal thing,
19:19so really one's following the females.
19:22The males, they come and they go.
19:25We've seen many different males within the marsh pride,
19:30and they're all so different.
19:36Each time we get a takeover and new pride males come in,
19:42it's a transition and sometimes a very sad transition
19:46because you lose the cubs at that point.
19:49But then, like now, I feel it's a completely fresh beginning.
19:53You know, the marsh pride last year had a very, very tough year,
19:57but now wonderful two new males have come in,
20:01and all the females are having babies,
20:05and it does feel like this wonderful fresh start for them.
20:12I think it's going to be a particularly exciting year for this pride.
20:31Malaika is one of the best hunters we have in the mara.
20:36She is strong, she is very powerful.
20:41And she's very clever.
20:44Right now, look, she's got something in mind up there.
20:48She's looking very hard at what might be right here.
20:59Malaika has been moving from one termite mound to another,
21:04and the reason why she likes mounds is a good vantage point
21:09when she sits up higher above and she can take and be accurate.
21:14She knows exactly when to hunt.
21:17And now she looks like she's looking at something, and she is moving.
21:26She's locked on something.
21:30Now the impalas are saying,
21:33oh, why are you all parking around us?
21:36If they have the brain, they will run away.
21:39We are not here for just a game drive.
21:42We're here to witness something special.
21:46Malaika hunting.
21:53After hours and hours of sitting,
21:57After hours and hours of sitting here in the baking sun,
22:01finally, I can just see her movement.
22:04She's walking really slowly, stealth,
22:07and every movement of the leg that she takes,
22:11it is really meaningful.
22:14The only thing that I'm worried about is the cubs.
22:19If the cubs decide, for one way or another,
22:24we're going to follow mom, that would be the end of this attempt.
22:30Let's position the cubs quickly.
22:37We actually don't know how she's going to strike.
22:40The thing is, we need to be in the best position possible
22:43when all these animals are running, ripping towards us.
22:47That is the goal.
22:55She's absolutely brilliant.
22:57She's so, so close.
23:04Now she goes up again, and now,
23:07she is hurrying, there she goes, there she goes.
23:10She's gone now, she's locked on.
23:24She's gone now, she's locked on.
23:49Absolutely amazing.
23:51This is one of the most fantastic runs we had.
23:55Really good, but she missed it.
23:58She goes hungry again.
24:00Now, right here, on top of this place,
24:03there will be other predators looking.
24:05She needs to go back immediately to go and support
24:08and make sure the cubs are safe.
24:10Look at her go.
24:12But what an amazing, amazing run.
24:21The End
24:40What a nice place to be.
24:43We are now looking for Olare and her little family.
24:49This leopard lives in the forest.
24:53Olare knows where to live.
24:56And if I was a leopard,
25:01I would be right here, in this beautiful place.
25:06Just hiding away from other predators.
25:14Oh, look, look, look.
25:16There he is. He's a little cub up here.
25:20He's right here.
25:25It's really good to see the mother,
25:27but it's better to see the cubs.
25:30And this is Dogo.
25:33This is the smallest of Olare's cubs.
25:38It's really special.
25:41Different to the lions and cheetah,
25:44leopards are solitary animals.
25:46And you can see that this cub is not with the brothers.
25:52Look, there's a baboon very close.
25:54The biggest threat for this little cub.
25:58He must stay calm.
26:02I'm quite worried, you know,
26:04baboons will kill full grown-up leopards.
26:07And a little cub, they will just rip into pieces.
26:12Look, there's more. There's more.
26:15If you think of a baboon's bane,
26:18this number one main enemy is a leopard.
26:23If they find a baby leopard,
26:25they will kill it to eliminate the enemy much earlier on.
26:32This little cub is so scared now.
26:34It's going up. It's going all the way.
26:36Oh, this clever cub.
26:39It's gone to the very, very top of the branches.
26:42If a big male baboon goes up there,
26:45he'll just hiss, sit and hiss.
26:47And that probably will trigger the mother
26:50to come quickly for help.
26:56Yeah, that's vapid monkeys.
26:59Listen, there's another leopard out here.
27:01Let's check.
27:09Keep it low.
27:14Come right at us.
27:31That is what I mean.
27:33Isn't it fantastic?
27:35A beautiful young male leopard.
27:39Wow, it is absolutely gorgeous.
27:45This is Ndogo's older brother, Jasiri.
27:50He knows where the little cub was,
27:52and he's now calling.
27:54He's actually calling for the little brother.
27:56Hear him? Hear him?
27:59Smelling where he was.
28:06He is searching for Olare and his two younger brothers.
28:14He's independent. He's almost fully grown.
28:17But every so often he comes and he joins the family.
28:22He still likes to be with the mother.
28:27To see one leopard on his own is very exciting.
28:30But to see a family, it would be very, very special.
28:36This is Charm.
28:38She's a very distinctive, a big lioness.
28:41She's the oldest female in the pride,
28:4311 to 12 years of age.
28:46There's so much wisdom there.
28:48And we know she's given birth to cubs,
28:50and by the look of it,
28:52she's headed back to where she's headed.
28:54She's going to be a lioness.
28:56She's going to be a lioness.
28:58She's going to be a lioness.
29:00She's going to be a lioness.
29:02And by the look of it, she's headed back to where she's hidden them.
29:12Oh, fantastic.
29:14My first proper view of Charm's cubs.
29:20They look like little teddy bears.
29:22Their eyes are open.
29:24Little rounded ears.
29:26And even at this age,
29:28they're sort of, you know, wrestling with each other.
29:30Little bites, proper lions.
29:35She just stopped there for a moment, just paused.
29:38So she's cautious,
29:40just looking into the den.
29:42Is everything okay?
29:44Is everything as I left it?
29:49Ah, there we go, look.
29:52Charm's lifted her leg up, and boy,
29:54those two cubs are just ravenous.
29:58They are getting stuck into the milk.
30:05Wow, that was magical.
30:08Another wonderful moment.
30:11Another chapter in the life of the marsh lions.
30:28OK, we've got a good angle now.
30:33So, two young male lions and more than a dozen hyenas.
30:37And these look to me like a couple of young males,
30:40almost certainly nomads.
30:42They will have been pushed out of the pride in which they're born,
30:45two to three years of age.
30:49But it's fascinating to see a situation like this,
30:52because I think most people think,
30:54well, no contest, lions against hyenas.
30:56But hyenas in these big clans,
30:58I mean, some of the clans of hyenas are 50 strong.
31:05And you can feel the balance of power just shifting,
31:08because as the lions become fuller,
31:10as they've eaten more of that carcass,
31:12they will be more liable to actually give way to the hyenas.
31:15And the hyenas will sense that.
31:17The tails will come up, they'll start to whoop,
31:19they'll close in, and off the lions will go.
31:23People tend to think of hyenas as scavengers,
31:26but actually they're powerful predators.
31:28They probably killed the wildebeest at night.
31:30Along come two males looking for a free meal.
31:33They took it from the hyenas.
31:39And in the meantime, they'll sort of pick off the bits
31:41that they can get in there.
31:43They're very brave.
31:45You know, a lot of people think hyenas are sort of rather
31:48cowardly animals.
31:50Cowardly animals, not at all.
31:52They're bold, they're brazen.
32:03You see, he just can't bear to let go of the carcass.
32:09There's very little left for him there now.
32:21There's this wonderful sort of, almost like,
32:24you could call it a feeding succession,
32:26because the lions have had a fair bit of meat from that.
32:30It's just bones, it's skin,
32:32and that's where the hyena then takes over,
32:34because it can actually crunch up those bones.
32:37It can chew through that skin.
32:39And so in the end, very little will be wasted of that carcass.
32:42So there's this lovely succession.
32:50.
33:08We've got the whole team out at the moment
33:10looking for the Ilari female.
33:12We've got word that two of the cubs have been seen,
33:15but it's pretty thick, and if Mum's not with them,
33:18they may stay sort of tight, you know,
33:20they'll be less keen to move around.
33:22But there's some nice little open patches,
33:24so we may just catch a glimpse of them as they move through here.
33:35There.
33:37You can just see the bushes moving around.
33:41Oh, here, look. Wow!
33:44So we've got our two boys, Ilari's cubs,
33:49just having the time of their lives.
33:52It's cool, it's a great time for them to be playing,
33:56and of course they've got this shroud of croton bushes
33:59to conceal them from danger.
34:03They're so quick and agile.
34:13And literally Mum's away and the cubs are at play.
34:17And this is very, very typical.
34:19You can find the cubs without their mum.
34:22She may be off trying to hunt,
34:24and she's very confident when they're this big
34:26just of leaving them to their own devices.
34:32Jackson has named the two cubs.
34:35So one, the bigger one, Mokubwa, Swahili for big,
34:40and the little one, Ndogo, means small.
34:43And you can really see the difference.
34:46In fact, if this was lions,
34:48I would think these two cubs came from different litters.
34:53They still seem to just love playing with each other.
34:56And the smaller one, Ndogo,
34:58he doesn't seem to sort of feel bullied by his bigger brother.
35:03At this age, there's just so much social interaction.
35:09And that's a huge contrast
35:11between the life that these leopards will live as adults.
35:18I think often people don't realise how lucky they are
35:21when they get a glimpse of a leopard.
35:23So much of what they do is hidden from the human eye.
35:28Mokubwa is going to be quite a handful.
35:31I mean, he is a big leopard by anybody's standards.
35:34And when he is full-grown, this is going to be a massive leopard,
35:38maybe 60, 70 kilos.
35:43And he'll have to fight for that territory.
35:45He will have to fight other leopards.
35:47He won't look like this.
35:49Those big, big, big leopards,
35:51they're not going to look like this.
35:53He will have to fight for that territory.
35:55He will have to fight other leopards.
35:57He won't look like this.
35:59Those beautifully unmarked ears, that unscratched-up face,
36:02he will have a face full of character.
36:04Right now, the character of this leopard is mischievous,
36:08a little bit cheeky, very confident.
36:24Olari is a single mum,
36:26so her job is to raise those cubs, to provide for them,
36:30to make kills for them, to feed them, to protect them.
36:33And the male's job, the territorial male,
36:36is to keep other males from coming in,
36:39because, remember, with all of these cats, besides the cheetah,
36:42males will kill cubs that are in the territory.
36:46And the male will kill cubs that are in the territory.
36:50And, remember, with all of these cats, besides the cheetah,
36:53males will kill cubs that they haven't sired.
36:56Infanticide is the norm amongst cats.
37:16Talk about big cat legacy.
37:18The mum leopard, we've got our older son, Jaziri,
37:21and the two younger cubs.
37:25Jaziri is independent, but he still hangs around the territory.
37:29He hasn't been given the push yet by his father.
37:33And he's big. I mean, he is bigger than mum now.
37:37But wonderful just to see all four together,
37:40and the fact that, actually, the two younger cubs,
37:43they're not frightened of Jaziri,
37:45and he will sometimes interact with them.
37:49On a daily basis, these leopards are dealing with lions, with baboons,
37:54with all kinds of things that threaten the lives of their cubs.
37:57So you get a morning like this, you just relish it.
38:01You celebrate the life of these extraordinary creatures.
38:18The Lion King
38:36Over the years, the marsh has changed.
38:38There's less thickets than there used to be,
38:41less places where the lions can lie up,
38:44and particularly avoid contact with these, with the buffalo.
38:52One of our male lions lying, he's just noticed the buffalo coming in.
38:55Others running in from the right.
38:57And, you know, what do you do in this situation?
38:59Do you hold tight and try and intimidate the buffalo,
39:01or do you turn tail and run?
39:03If he runs, he's going to run right towards where the mums are with the cubs.
39:06The buffalo don't even know they're there yet.
39:09But what I do know is they can smell lion.
39:12I tell you, those three little cubs.
39:15And this is a bad position because it's so open here.
39:18If there was a thicket that the lion cubs could just burrow into,
39:21there's no cover for themselves here.
39:23Okay, the male's turning.
39:24But the trouble is, that's going to draw the buffalo in behind him.
39:27They'll want to push him off.
39:30God, they look so powerful, those buffalo.
39:34Look at them, trotting in.
39:37These are the heavy-duty boys.
39:39What are the lionesses going to do?
39:41Oh, there they go.
39:42Here go the lionesses, look.
39:44There they go, with the cubs, taking no chances at all.
39:49And, you know, you look at those buffalo.
39:51They look like weary old men, like they can barely move.
39:55But don't believe it.
39:57They can pick up pace.
39:59They can kick like a bucking bronco.
40:01And they can slam their horns into the ground and just kill a cub.
40:05Like that.
40:08Okay, now look, that's going to lead them in.
40:09See the female?
40:10This is the pregnant female.
40:11That's the last thing she needs, is to have buffaloes chasing her.
40:20And maybe that's enough for the buffalo, you know.
40:22Okay, fine.
40:23We're the ones in charge here.
40:25You move on.
40:29Okay, buffalo coming right behind Onpoli.
40:33Look, listen.
40:35Oh, Onpoli means slowly, slowly, but right there.
40:38Okay, quick, quick.
40:46Oh, no.
40:47The buffalo are going right towards the bush,
40:50where Charm is with the little babies.
41:04Oh, no.
41:15The buffalo have surrounded Charm's den.
41:18They can smell those little cubs.
41:20They can smell lion.
41:34That was such a close call.
41:37Just goes to show the experience of Charm.
41:40She knew that she had to stay still to save those cubs.
41:44She didn't dare move.
41:48The rest of the pride have scattered.
41:50Let's just hope those cubs survive.
41:52But knowing buffalo, this isn't over yet.
42:00Next time on Big Cat Tales.
42:02Malaika is dead on target.
42:06She is actually moving one of the cubs.
42:08Some of them will lose their lives.
42:11Here she comes, look, closing in.