The social groups and predatory patterns of leopards living in the Luangua Valley of Zambia.
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00:00During the following program, look for NOVA's webmarkers which lead you to more information at our website.
00:09Tonight on NOVA, as daylight fades, a silent hunter stalks.
00:19For the first time ever, under the cover of complete darkness, see her strike.
00:27With NOVA's special cameras, go on the hunt with Africa's most successful big cat.
00:35Enter the hidden world of leopards of the night.
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01:37Northwestern Mutual Life.
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01:4700va Samanta, whose tail plays on the ground while he crushes the skull.
02:02Gentle hunter, his tail plays on the ground while he crushes the skull.
02:18Beautiful death, who puts on a spotted robe when he goes to his victim.
02:24A playful killer, whose loving embrace splits the antelope's heart.
02:44Many African cultures praise the courage and charisma of the leopard.
02:49They also fear his stealth and his cunning, because he can move and hunt in total darkness,
02:57whereas we, unable to see, can only hide away.
03:03Now, using a very special camera that can see in near total darkness,
03:08we can venture out into the night to find the truth behind those stories,
03:12and take a very special look at the leopard, the true agent of darkness.
03:19This is South Luangwa National Park in Zambia,
03:41a lush riverine valley full of life.
03:44Leopards thrive here, but they are masters of concealment,
03:48and if you do catch a glimpse of an adult during the day,
03:52it's generally not doing very much at all.
03:58Adults are generally solitary, much more secretive than lions or cheetah,
04:03and rarely hunt during the day.
04:06Because of their stealth, leopards, not surprisingly,
04:10are the least known of all Africa's big cats.
04:13Much of their behaviour has been hidden from us by the veil of darkness.
04:25But now, using the state-of-the-art night vision equipment,
04:29we will be able to witness the behaviour of a female and her cub,
04:33as well as its mature male,
04:35as shadows lengthen and the sun begins to set.
04:44We enter the real world of the leopard,
04:47as the male leaves his refuge to begin his night patrol.
04:52Among these leopards of Zambia,
04:54we will see activity rarely, if ever, observed before.
04:57We will also travel southwards to Namibia,
05:06as part of a three-year effort to penetrate the night-time secrets
05:10of the cat that walks on its own.
05:12As the daylight fades,
05:33most animals try to find somewhere safe
05:36to hide away from night hunters,
05:38like the male.
05:38Tension increases as the day dies.
05:59Baboons seek refuge in the tallest of trees.
06:08As our eyesight fails,
06:36we turn to the unique video camera
06:39that can record full-colour pictures
06:42in very low light.
06:56Here is the female,
06:58whom we can recognise by a scar on her side.
07:01She is fifteen,
07:06which is quite old for a leopard.
07:12Like all leopards,
07:14she hunts on her own.
07:16She locates her prey,
07:18an impala.
07:19But bright moonlight interferes.
07:22The impala is in a mixed herd
07:23of puku and impala,
07:25all of whom are able to spot her movements
07:27from hundreds of yards away.
07:29A transformation comes
07:33as the night turns.
07:40Now, in the pitch dark,
07:42a second camera,
07:44which is sensitive to infrared frequencies,
07:47allows us to still see clearly.
07:50Now, both antelope and leopard
07:52have much more limited vision,
07:54though it's uncertain just how much they can see.
07:56Hunter and hunted rely on their other senses,
08:03like hearing.
08:06The leopard can't make one single sound.
08:10It's pitch dark,
08:26and remember,
08:28only we can see her.
08:30The antelope use every sense
08:40to try and detect any danger
08:42that might be out there.
08:47The leopard strains not to be heard.
08:51Even the rustle of a leaf
08:52would give the alarm.
08:53The antelope vezes more than to be heard,
08:56and the imitations forga Hart,
08:58all of whom are able to shade下.
08:58The leopard isn't perfect for theirDIO's
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09:03all of whom are Lvenge twins
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09:08is looking to build an auld
09:08and the beast.
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09:12and entities
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09:16on their way
09:17can see find
09:17if the winter
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09:19also
09:20the one
09:21other
09:22are
09:23She must get nearer to strike.
09:26But when she's as close as this, even the sound of her breathing could give her away.
09:31Perhaps it was her scent that betrayed her.
10:01But the Puku and Impala still don't know exactly where she is until she moves off and gives the game away.
10:16Her tail signals that she's given up, even though the antelope can barely see her.
10:21For the first time, we were able to see clearly the true tension of a hunt at night.
10:33Travelling to Namibia, the leopard secrets are unravelled differently.
10:37Here, scientist Philip Stander has joined the Jungkwan Bushmen
10:47to piece together the nocturnal behaviour of the leopards in these semi-arid lands.
10:53There is very little game in this vast landscape.
10:58Radio tracking from the air, Philip is able to locate different leopards in the study.
11:03He pinpoints the leopards' last location for the Bushmen.
11:08As in Zambia, the leopards are so shy and secretive in the day that they're hardly ever seen.
11:15But for the Jungkwan, this is no problem.
11:18They don't need to see leopards to discover their secrets.
11:21All they require are footprints.
11:23They interpret the faintest of prints to reconstruct the leopards' actions.
11:31They find that a young antelope has been killed by a male leopard.
11:35His tracks reveal he was as close as 12 feet from the calf before he pounced.
11:40As hunters themselves, their knowledge of nature is unmatched.
11:49Their interpretations are almost 100% accurate.
11:53Along with Philip, they have recorded in meticulous detail over 100 night-time hunts.
11:59Their observations reveal that leopards often have to stalk as much as 90 feet
12:04before they can get close enough to spring.
12:06The team has confirmed that the solitary leopard is indeed a superlative hunter.
12:20In Zambia's river valley, the leopards have the choice of a wider variety of prey.
12:27In their treetop refuge, baboons are hard to catch.
12:30But sometimes the male makes the attempt.
12:33This time, he doesn't have to be quiet.
12:42Instead, whilst the moon is out, he employs what we call psychological warfare.
12:49The noise of his advance creates great alarm
12:52because baboons have poor night vision.
12:55He takes advantage of this by deliberately terrorising the troop,
13:04trying to force one of them up a branch of no return.
13:07If the moon stays out, there might be just enough light for the baboons to keep one step ahead.
13:36They can't see much, but they can hear
14:04that somewhere close there's a killer in their midst.
14:14But when the moon disappears,
14:17the baboons are very much at a disadvantage.
14:19Finally, the leopard's chase has paid off.
14:46Once again, darkness was the key to his success,
15:00creating an opening which he was quick to exploit.
15:03Because they are adaptable and opportunistic,
15:15leopards are the most successful of Africa's big cats alive today.
15:20The baboons, with their poor night vision,
15:32are inevitably vulnerable to predators with better eyesight.
15:36Long ago, other primates were also almost helpless when faced with cats that could see in the dark.
15:52In southern Africa, caves containing thousands of bones,
15:55some of which were brought in by carnivores over centuries, tell the story.
15:59Farther down in one cave, remains nearly two million years old show that for our earliest ancestors,
16:12before the priceless discovery of fire,
16:15passing a night in a cave entrance was very hazardous indeed.
16:19Our distant ancestor, an adult Australopithecus robustus,
16:34and a youngster whose skull shows puncture marks made by the teeth of a leopard.
16:39With fire, and the development of more sophisticated weapons,
16:55later hominids were no longer helpless victims in the dark.
16:58They had become top predators.
17:02Young Kui and the other Juh-Puan Bushmen in Namibia
17:06follow a traditional lifestyle, which has been handed down to them through the generations.
17:27It takes time and skill to make fire,
17:29but it does help to keep predators at bay during the long African nights.
17:36For thousands of years, the Bushmen have been hunters and gatherers.
17:57Today, their ability to find, track and hunt animals is phenomenal.
18:02After all, their lives depend upon it.
18:05They use the lava of a beetle as a deadly poison,
18:08They use the lava of a beetle as a deadly poison,
18:29here what we call magic and supernatural powers are a way of life going into trance helps them
18:54pass into the spirit world where animals become people and people animals
19:24the leopard was worshipped for its prowess as a hunter but even so the full extent of its skills
19:34was hidden by the black of night
19:36in Zambia the infrared camera continues to reveal more about the leopard's life at night
19:48the female is trying to catch puku fawns in the absence of moonlight she can't find them by sight
19:56so she's using her nose
19:58young inexperienced puku would be easy prey but the fawns tuck themselves away at a distance from the herd
20:13and their bodies are almost scentless
20:15she has found one and once again has to close the gap without rustling a single blade of grass
20:42she has found one and once again has to close the gap between the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and the birds and
21:42In the dead of night, the fawn can't see nearly as well as our camera.
22:12The fawn has grown tense.
22:21She can see something, but not enough to be sure.
22:24In addition, there's an unfamiliar scent in the air.
22:39The fawn strains her ears for a confirmation of danger as the wind changes direction.
22:49Luck just wasn't on the leopard's side.
22:58Once again, it was her scent that betrayed her.
23:03The stalk demanded so much concentration and control that she's quite exhausted.
23:09She also has other urgent business.
23:12Scent marking.
23:13There's so much prey here that the leopards can have small home ranges which overlap.
23:24Occasionally, they even scavenge from one another's kill.
23:27Generally, though, each tries to avoid the other.
23:39And marking along regular pathways helps, since the scent contains vital information
23:44telling other leopards which individual was around and when.
23:48Scent rams on her feet leave pungent signs of her presence.
24:11Tonight, she wants to attract a male, because she's coming into season.
24:19She calls, using the ground as a sounding board, so her message travels as far as possible.
24:38A male nearby responds.
24:41As they approach one another, the female becomes very cautious.
25:04The male seems belligerent.
25:07In this dangerous liaison, she must react quickly.
25:17The male is much bigger and much stronger than she is.
25:37So, she has to be careful that her presence does not irritate him.
25:42After many hours, she considers it safe for her to come closer.
26:06They mate frequently for three nights and days.
26:17They mate frequently for three nights and days.
26:31This is the only involvement that males have in family life.
26:36The male deadman has in fui.
26:37The male deadwalk.
26:38The male deadwalk.
26:38The male deadwalk.
26:39The male dead biological.
26:39The male deadritt.
26:39The male deadsoon.
26:39The female dead man still manifests.
26:40The male dead bipolar.
26:41The male deadzeit is more known for the height of the life.
26:43The male dead bay.
26:43The male deadlocks.
26:45The male dead Здșed the light.
26:45The male deadfire.
26:59Back in Namibia, a young female has been trapped.
27:18She's one of 18 leopards in Philip Stander's study.
27:22She was radio-collared as a cub, and now her collar needs to be loosened.
27:29The Junkoan have adapted their traditional bows and arrows to fire tranquilizing darts.
27:36The bushman rarely see leopards in the flesh, and they fall into silence.
27:52Although the collar looks big, it's quite lightweight and won't impede her movements.
27:59They discovered that leopards here have huge home ranges.
28:06One male regularly travelled an area of over 400 square miles,
28:11a necessity in this arid Namibian environment where prey is very dispersed.
28:16In such vast areas, Philip's radio tracking makes it possible to find the animals in the study,
28:27though not to see them very often.
28:30But the bushman will follow every detail of their lives from their tracks.
28:34They're releasing this leopard in good condition,
28:36but having just become independent, she's at a most critical stage.
28:47The majority of young leopards, when they start to fend for themselves, die of hunger.
28:53The bushman are now tracking a female with a half-grown cub,
29:00which they believe is still dependent on her for food.
29:03They find the remains of a genet.
29:08By carefully analyzing the carcass,
29:10they're surprised to discover that it was the cub that made the kill.
29:14They know that this is the first time the cub has made its own kill,
29:20a sign that she will soon be independent.
29:23But the study averages show that she will continue to rely on her mother
29:27for a few more months yet.
29:29Philip and the bushman are constantly adding data to the study,
29:40confirming aspects of leopard behavior that had only been guessed at before.
29:45They will leave the carcass for the cub,
29:47as they know she will return here in a few hours to finish off her feast.
29:59They will return here in a few hours to finish off her feast.
30:29Back in Zambia, a female is with her cub.
30:36Since he's only nine months old,
30:39he's still got a few more months of security with his mother.
30:46The cub is the only survivor from her last litter of two.
30:50The scar on her flank is easy to see.
31:00It may be the result of a baboon bite five years ago,
31:04which has never completely healed.
31:06But it doesn't seem to cause her any problems.
31:08She has to catch much more food than normal now,
31:26not only to feed her cub,
31:28but also to keep herself in top condition.
31:31This necessity leads her to hunt in the day,
31:33but she usually waits for the security of nightfall
31:37before she brings the cub to her kiln.
31:39She has eaten a portion of the impala during the day,
32:04but still it weighs nearly as much as she does.
32:12Old for a leopard,
32:14she's still strong enough to haul her kiln up
32:17out of the reach of others.
32:18Wink is still strong enough to cause her to jail in her place.
32:25Heselyself
32:26Wink
32:29Wink
32:30Wink
32:34Wink
32:37Wink
32:42Wink
32:45Wink
32:47Wink
32:47but the young are foolish
32:55and he's wasted all her hard work
32:58he still has time to learn from his mother
33:09who with 15 years of experience
33:11is an expert in leopard survival tactics
33:14the findings from Philip's study in Namibia
33:17show that the main reason leopards are as solitary and secretive as they are
33:22is that it benefits them not to draw attention to their kills
33:26leopards are relatively small cats
33:29and in most of Africa
33:30there are other larger, more gregarious carnivores
33:34and terrifyingly expert scavengers
33:37not far away from our female leopard
33:53hyenas and crocodiles
33:55wrestle over the remains of a buffalo
33:57hyenas and crocodiles
34:07hanno laucho
34:11Oh, my God.
34:41The moon has disappeared, and the hungry male is on the prowl.
34:57He has several advantages on his side.
35:00He knows every inch of the ground, and he's learnt exactly where the impala like to spend the night.
35:06Most importantly, there's no moonlight to betray him.
35:15The leopard makes the kill.
35:41The big male impala is too heavy for him to haul up a tree.
35:53Instead, he feeds quickly, getting a meal at the same time as reducing the weight of the carcass.
36:00It's a race against time, because the alarm calls are alerting others in the neighbourhood.
36:04Every night, hyenas haunt the leopard's favourite hunting grounds.
36:24There are so many leopards that the hyenas have learnt to react quickly to any alarm calls.
36:29If they're fast, they stand a good chance of scavenging a relatively easy meal.
36:43When he's on the ground with his kill, the male is at his most vulnerable.
36:48He's nowhere near as powerful as a hyena, and a fight to save his prize would risk his life.
36:54He's nowhere near as far as too much.
36:55Is that true?
37:16However, the male, like all leopards, is good at waiting.
37:46The male, like all leopards, is good at waiting.
38:16Even a small snack is worth having.
38:33Leopards have other serious competitors, as the team in Namibia discover.
38:38The group goes in to investigate because from the air, Philip has been monitoring a signal
38:44which shows one of their leopards hasn't moved for five days.
38:49There's the remains of the leopards' kill with an unusual mixture of tracks.
38:54There are prints from leopard, antelope, hyena and lion.
39:04Then, old Kui finds the remains of a female leopard.
39:22Sadly, it's the mother of the adolescent female whose radio collar was changed earlier.
39:27From the tracks, the bushman discover that two lionesses were attracted by the scent of the kill
39:38and surprised the leopard in the tree.
39:41She tried to escape, but the lionesses cornered and killed her on the ground.
39:46Later on, hyenas scavenged from her carcass.
39:49Confrontation amongst big cats can be fatal, but leopards have a far more deadly competitor, us.
40:00From the earliest days when our ancestors were victims, the tables have turned.
40:05Every year, people trap, poison, snare and shoot thousands of leopards because of fear.
40:11Because they kill sheep and cattle, or because they want their skins.
40:20In Zambia, it's late afternoon and very hot.
40:26Our male leopard is making good use of this quiet time to survey his range.
40:34He must be familiar with every bush and every small ravine.
40:37So when darkness falls and hunting begins, he can utilize this intimate knowledge to his advantage.
40:45And on bright, moonlit nights, knowing a useful ravine by which to approach his prey
40:49could be the difference between success and failure.
40:59Eventually, satisfied that his territory is in order,
41:03he seeks out some quiet shade for a restorative snooze.
41:10His presence is duly noted.
41:19He makes the Buku wary and nervous,
41:22though he poses no threat to them in the daytime,
41:25as they could easily outrun him at this distance.
41:27They decide not to take any chances.
41:46With the disturbance finally over,
41:49he at last has the chance to nap.
41:51But not for long,
42:05with the arrival of a curious visitor.
42:16The male leopard pays little attention.
42:21And the giraffes, too, soon lose interest.
42:38Then, a bigger problem arrives on the scene.
42:41Harassment on a grand scale.
42:43Baboons, like us, tend to have the upper hand in the day.
42:56No longer handicapped by the dark,
42:58and with their sight unimpaired,
43:00a small troop has discovered him.
43:06This is a real threat.
43:08Baboons kill leopards.
43:09But this time,
43:11there are not enough big males to corner him.
43:13So they bark and harass him,
43:15warning the rest of the troop of his presence.
43:21Even under this pressure,
43:22the male is confident enough not to run,
43:25which would give the baboons a chance to attack.
43:28But he is wary and a little disturbed.
43:30He tries to tuck himself away out of their sight
43:49for a little piece.
43:51It's a stand-off,
43:53at least until nightfall,
43:54when he can once again regain the upper hand.
43:57Children's voice
43:59No!
44:00No!
44:02No!
44:03No!
44:11No!
44:16No!
44:17No!
44:22No!
44:23No!
44:23No!
44:24No!
46:24But he won't share his prize with her.
46:27His appetite satisfied, she leaves him alone while she tries to catch something bigger that will last both of them a few days.
46:36The black knight promises her a good opportunity.
46:46Rolling in the dirt might be playful or it might help to hide her scent.
46:52...
48:12To snatch a kill, hyenas try to shadow hunting leopards, but with their clumsy attempts to find the leopard in the dark, they often interrupt and spoil the hunt.
48:22Hyenas will generally only attack leopards to steal their kill, so the female stays her ground.
48:46Hyenas dogging her footsteps.
49:10With hyenas dogging her footsteps, she lets time pass to allow the antelope to settle down and the bored hyenas to depart.
49:40Meanwhile, the cub investigates a prickly problem.
49:53Armed with sharp quills and quick reflexes, porcupines are not the easiest to pray for the inexperienced.
50:05Wisely, the cub leaves it well alone.
50:34Since the woodland seems to be clear of hyenas, it's time for his mother to try hunting once again.
50:53She employs a new tactic which appears to break all the rules.
51:09Contrary to everything we've seen before, she appears to deliberately stamp her paw.
51:20This time, she seems to want the antelope to hear her.
51:27And now she raises the pressure by continuing to use sound to cause confusion.
51:34Her strategy could only work in near-total darkness.
51:49The antelope can't see her well, but every now and then they can hear her.
51:54She's hoping one of them will panic, go the wrong way, and she'll be ready to ambush, hidden in the darkness.
52:04The antelope can't see her.
52:07The antelope can't see her well, but she's not the only one who's going to die.
52:11The antelope can't see her well, but she's not the only one who's going to die.
52:20She's hoping one of them will panic, and she'll be ready to bite.
52:24The antelope can't see her well, but she's not the only one who's going to die.
52:52Now, no one had ever seen or even suspected that leopards used such remarkable manoeuvres.
52:59One thing is certain.
53:01Just when you think you understand them, they do something utterly surprising.
53:22It is little wonder that the people who live alongside the leopard, and who know it most intimately, should admire it so much and praise it so greatly.
53:37The beautiful death, who puts on a spotted robe when he goes to his victim.
53:46The playful killer, whose loving embrace splits the antelope's heart.
53:53Gentle hunter, his tail plays on the ground while he crushes the skull.
54:12The beautiful death, who puts on a spotted robe when he goes to his victim.
54:27The playful killer, whose loving embrace splits the antelope's heart.
54:40The leopard's victims couldn't see them coming, neither could our photographers.
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55:07Find out on NOVA's website.
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