Video Documentary: Africa’s Big Cats are Disappearing. What Can We Do? | Big Cats Unleashed
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0:00
The first time I saw it, I genuinely thought that my eyes were deceiving me.
0:04
It's something that seems to be ingrained within the culture of pride.
0:09
I've never heard of any other lions in the Okavango Delta
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who consistently climb trees like our Xudum pride.
0:16
I've got a lioness who's just about to climb a tree,
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and this tree is already full of lions.
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There’s like a queue.
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Of those who went first,
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they want to come down.
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And the one who is right by the sort of exit,
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she doesn't want to move off.
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Just standing there like ‘go on, darling.
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We've got to get down’.
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It's not uncommon for your neighborhood cats to climb trees.
0:55
Big shout out to all the firefighters out there.
0:58
But lions bounding up the branches, that's actually kind of weird.
1:02
And there are theories about why this population started doing it.
1:06
It definitely seems to be, it seems to be a seasonal thing.
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When I first arrived here, I didn't see any lions in trees.
1:14
And now it is a daily occurrence.
1:18
I think it's a lot warmer,
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there's a lot more biting insects around.
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I mean, we can see the heat waves coming off the ground all the time.
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So just getting that extra height
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might allow them to get some of that really nice breeze that's moving through.
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The lioness on the ground has a lot of flies surrounding her.
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And yes, the one up the tree has,
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has the better idea, she doesn't have any flies.
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So climbing up a tree does help.
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And flies might not be the only thing
1:54
these ladies are trying to avoid.
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From the very young age, those little cubs start learning how to climb trees.
2:01
I think trying to chase their mum for some milk.
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This tree is meant to be for the grown ups.
2:09
Cubs can be really, really annoying.
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Those mums have worked it out.
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We get into a tree that's just a little bit too tall for the cubs and
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it's like a payback.
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Whatever the reason behind their tree climbing capabilities,
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there's still some aspects of being a lion that just aren't cut out
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for a life in the branches.
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They're bulky and big.
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Female lions will get up to 130kg, 150 at the max,
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and a male lion maybe even pushing 200 to 250kg.
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And if you fall from a height at that weight,
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there's a good chance you're going to hurt yourself.
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Watching this lioness,
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go up the tree is so funny because she has got such
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a straight line between her shoulders and her back.
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There's absolutely no give there whatsoever.
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That's so different to the curved backs of leopards like Xudum.
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When Xudum climbs a tree
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her shoulder blades are so flexible and they move with her.
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Whereas this lioness just looks so awkward
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and she looks like she's got a plank of wood on her back.
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Lions might not exactly be built for it,
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but their ability to climb trees presents a novel problem for the area's leopards.
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One particular incident, one of the lionesses
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managed to climb into a tree with a big male leopard and steal a warthog
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kill from him. I mean, it was unbelievable.
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They got both into the same tree and she tried
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to chase them up into the tree and he was like ‘grr’
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and she was like ‘grr’.
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And it was massive drama in this tree.
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It was an exceptional thing that I've only seen a handful of times.
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When they're not losing their lunch to tree climbing lions.
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A treetop vantage point can provide leopards with a number of benefits.
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It gives them safety and security from other big predators.
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They're able to safely secure food, safely stash their cubs.
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It also gives them an amazing vantage point to scan their area,
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and they'll often spend a lot of time going up and down and up and down
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just to kind of get a better view of what's going on in their in their terrain.
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When you watch them, they're almost thinking about things
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very intently, planning, how are they going to approach prey?
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And they’re very mindful hunters.
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Some leopards use certain trees for a spectacular hunting behavior.
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The sausage tree has a flower with very sweet
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nectar, whilst from the jackal berry there’s a yellow fruit.
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Our leopard Xudum knows that the prey will come in to eat these.
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The more time you spend with them,
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the better you understand when they're going to do specific things.
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Their tails twitch, their feet kind of lock into place,
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and within two seconds this leopard’s flying out of the tree.
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Jumping from tall trees
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onto prey is incredibly risky.
5:00
There's a lot at stake.
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An injured leopard is almost as good as a dead leopard because unlike lions
5:05
they have no backup, there's no one else to look after them.
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Leopards aren't the only solitary big cats in the Okavango,
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but cheetah don't generally share their tree climbing prowess.
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The reason why they don't typically climb trees
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is because their claws and feet are not really designed for that.
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They don't have retractable claws, so their claws are blunted by running.
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And that obviously doesn't help when you're trying to find your way up
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into a tree.
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If they need to go through a short part of the trunk,
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they'll run up and use their momentum to kind of get onto a fork.
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And then from there, they can kind of look around.
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Cheetah, which we've now discovered is a male,
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just climbed a tree very, very quickly.
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And is using the tree as a lookout point.
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It's just scoping out the area to see
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if there's any prey about.
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Whether it's for safety
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to hunt, or just for a bit of peace and quiet.
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The area's big cat species all spend at least
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some of their time in the branches.
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But there's still one age-old question left unanswered.
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Do you cats always land on their feet?
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I can say I've seen our cats falling out of trees,
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and I've never seen them not land on their feet.
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For all you cat lovers out there, make sure to watch Big Cats 24/7
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on the PBS app or PBS.org.
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The series follows a group of African big cats
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day and night for six unforgettable months.
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Check out the link in the description to watch the show.
