Jaguars - Born Free: Natural World Special Natural World

These orphaned jaguars are on the road to a new life.

They've found a loving family

and are at the centre of a pioneering project.

Dinnertime!

A team of scientists are taking the place of their mother

to teach them how to be wild.

They're in a learning process, like going to school -

every day, you learn a new thing.

It'll take two years of training to prepare them.

If it works, it will be the first time

that humans have taught jaguars how to survive in the wild.

The story starts with three tiny jaguar cubs

starving in a forest in Brazil.

They're all alone and are calling for their mother.

But she can't come.

She's dead.

But help is on the way.

Jaguar expert Leandro Silveira has been called in to rescue them.

The cubs' mother was shot by cattle ranchers,

who see jaguars as the enemy.

Hundreds of jaguars have been killed,

and their orphans left to die.

But one cowboy had a change of heart.

He saw three orphans

and he gave them to government officials,

because he knew they would starve to death.

So luckily, this guy changed the destiny of these three cubs.

Leandro and his wife Anah simply couldn't turn them away.

It was a life-changing commitment.

They were not in the best health condition -

they were already dehydrated,

one had diarrhoea

and I don't think they would last two days in the wild.

Leandro and Anah have studied jaguars together

for 20 years in the wild,

but they've never done anything like this.

It is a species we are dedicating our life to work with,

and three orphans,

it's something that really touches you right in the heart,

because they are going to die if you don't do something now.

These cubs are now safe,

but hundreds of other jaguar cubs are orphaned every year

and simply left to die.

If any are rescued, they spend their life in captivity.

Up to now, none have ever been successfully released.

But these cubs have a second chance to be free.

In the wild, cubs stay close to their mother,

learning all their hunting and survival skills from her.

Now, Leandro and Anah have to take the place of that mother.

It's a bold scientific experiment.

If it succeeds, it could pave the way for other orphaned jaguars.

But it's not going to be easy.

Leandro and Anah have two years to teach the cubs how to survive.

Their first step

is building a jaguar-proof enclosure in their back garden.

At six months old,

the cubs are already becoming distinct characters.

Maya is the smallest and the most playful,

and she's Anah's favourite.

I like all of them,

but Maya is more calm, or sweet.

And I prefer her!

Her sister, Kyra, is the wildest and always up for a fight.

-Kyra is more aggressive.

-She has a very distinct mood.

Since the beginning, since she was little.

She gets wild. Especially with food,

she beats them up and gets the food first,

she dominates the other two.

Xavante is the only male.

Although he's the biggest,

he's a gentle giant and Leandro's favourite.

There comes a jealous guy.

Hey! Come here. Come here!

Xavante is really the typical male,

the big boy, the teenager that is starting to go out.

The cubs will soon be back to full strength

and ready to start their training.

A far cry from when they were found close to starvation.

We're very happy to have this privilege to have the cubs.

At the same time, it is very sad - the reason why they are here -

they are not supposed to be here.

They had their mother killed, they are orphans,

and that happens all the time with jaguars.

I have heard several reports from illegal hunters

that they said, "Oh, I killed a mother, there were some cubs."

I said, "What did you do with the cubs?"

"I just left them." They wouldn't last long.

Brazil is changing, fast.

The jaguars' forest home has been cleared

to make way for cattle and crops.

Their natural prey has been replaced by livestock,

and jaguars are now being forced from their tiny fragments of forest

to feed on cattle.

The cowboys retaliate by killing them.

Look at the drama of their life. It's the real drama of the species.

If we look what we as humans do to the jaguars, it's just not fair.

We remove their habitat,

we put out cows where they used to live,

and they have to live on this tiny pocket of forest,

they come out and eat cows and, in retaliation, we kill them.

We leave so many orphans behind every year that will starve to death.

This is not a fair game.

This persecution is a major cause in the decline of jaguars.

But the three orphans have been spared the fate of their mother.

Their journey back to the wild is about to begin in earnest.

The first job of a jaguar mother

is to show the cubs around their new world.

A generation ago, this was all forest.

The cubs will have to learn how to survive

in a landscape dominated by fields and farming.

Today's family outing

is for the cubs to get used to this environment.

Hey! Remember this tree!

And it's a chance to practise a key skill for jaguars - tree-climbing.

Jaguars have a special relationship with trees.

First for marking, but they have scent glands here on their paws

so they mark it, and eventually, they go up to rest.

Maya is a natural climber,

but Xavante and Kyra need a little encouragement

from their human parents.

Kyra, come here!

Come here, come here.

Come here! Good boy, come here.

This is good, for them to come out

and have a feeling of this wide landscape around them,

so that they start getting used to that.

It's a good exercise for them.

After the fun, some more serious training has to start.

The cubs need to recognise the taste and feel of different prey.

At this age, in the wild,

their mother would bring back different animals for them to try.

This evening, they're feeding on peccary for the first time.

Dinnertime!

We're letting the cubs experience feeding on this species,

so they can recognise the smell,

they can start finding their way through the carcass.

They seem to like it.

They better do, because this is what they are going to be eating

when they are released.

As usual, the larger female, Kyra, is the most dominant of the three.

Her wild instincts are emerging much faster than her brother and sister.

Maya is much more timid and quickly backs down from the fight.

Although Xavante is much bigger than Kyra, he's wary of her,

and won't challenge her for the peccary.

The early signs are that Kyra

will be the first of the three cubs ready for release.

Over the next few weeks,

the cubs are introduced to all sorts of natural prey.

And they take to it all - with relish!

This is a good sign.

In the wild, jaguars need a very broad diet,

and eat over 60 different kinds of animals.

The cubs get plenty of practice with their two deadly weapons -

their teeth and their claws.

Just reinforcing their knowledge

that they are going to fight for their food.

The three cubs also discover that not every animal is on the menu.

The orphans' training has started well -

they can now recognise their prey.

But when they head into the wild,

the odds will be firmly stacked against them.

Most big cat releases ultimately end in failure,

because they can't hunt for themselves

and they have no fear of humans.

There's a long way to go before they are ready for release.

The orphans are now 11 months old and are growing quickly.

They have one year left until their release.

One thing all young cubs need is exercise,

to develop strong muscles.

In the wild, they'll be walking

several miles a day in search of prey.

Most days now, they are let off the lead

to stretch their limbs and follow their noses.

And today, their noses lead them to water.

Jaguars are aquatic animals,

so Leandro and Anah have built the cubs

their very own open-air swimming pool.

It's a fun part of their training,

but there's a serious point to this exercise.

Among all large cats, jaguars most love water.

They hunt by rivers,

they hunt capybara, caiman, turtles,

and they are good divers, too.

So, all this is important to them.

Hey, look at what you've done!

Hey!

LEANDRO SPITS WATER

Getting worse! It's not fair!

LEANDRO GROANS

The cubs are in no rush to go home

and keep disappearing into the tall grass.

It's about time to take them back to their enclosure,

but it's like waiting for kids in the park -

they want to have the last minute of fun,

playing around and chasing,

so we're just waiting for that moment to end

and have them back.

Even when they're out of their enclosure,

the cubs are still deeply attached to Leandro and Anah,

looking to them for reassurance.

After a life of studying jaguars from a distance,

they're enjoying the close contact,

but how much longer can it go on?

Perhaps the biologists

have become too close to the subjects of their experiment.

Today, they're being tested with a pampas deer.

This allows Leandro to observe the strengths

and weaknesses of each cub.

They know there's a carcass around. That's a good sign.

Xavante, the gentle giant,

is trying to establish his dominance as the male.

It's interesting that Xavante has taken over the carcass.

Kyra is trying to approach me, but she's respecting,

she's giving him the space.

Jaguars are solitary hunters and they feed solitary.

Maya is waiting,

Kyra is waiting for Xavante to finish his turn on it.

Usually, the male eats more than the female.

He gets larger, and the more dominant he becomes,

so he ends up eating first.

AGGRESSIVE GROWLING

Oh, look at that!

Oh, look at that!

Right now, they don't have space

and they're waiting to see who's giving up.

Maya is starting to feed.

But Xavante and Kyra haven't decided yet. Xavante is touching her.

Jaguars don't like physical contact.

Their position is clear - they are very, very tense right now.

That is deadlock, where one is hoping for the other one to give up

so they can start eating, but none of them wants to give up.

Look at that.

Kyra is in the advantage position, because she is underneath Xavante.

Now, she's got a position, she can breathe better now.

Look at that.

After ten minutes, the stalemate is finally broken.

Maya walks away from the fight.

She's still the smallest,

and can't compete with her more aggressive siblings.

Eventually, Kyra proves to be the cleverest of all.

She chews through the rope, and claims the prize all for herself.

With her prey secured, Kyra becomes extremely protective.

It's the first time one of the jaguars

has issued such a clear threat,

and even at this age, Kyra could easily kill Leandro.

We have to leave her alone - she's too aggressive and we should leave.

Kyra is losing her bond with people

and developing the aggression she needs to live in the wild.

It's good to see that behaviour - that means she is confident

and growing, but it's the right time to be outside of the enclosure.

That fight was also a clear sign

the three orphans have outgrown their cramped quarters.

The jaguars could easily injure each other,

so Leandro needs to start work on a much bigger enclosure.

When we received the cubs,

we never thought we would be involved in such a big project.

But I don't regret it. The jaguars demand this investment.

The cubs' new home covers five acres.

This is where they will complete their training.

The next time they pass through this gate

will be when they finally return to the wild.

The orphans are enjoying all the new sensations of their huge enclosure.

There's plenty of space to explore,

and from now on, they will be fed less and become leaner and fitter.

In the next three months, they will become adults,

ready for life in the wild.

And their new home comes complete with its own swamp.

These teenagers are in excellent condition - strong and fit.

They are now ready to face their final tests.

In the wild, their mother would now be teaching them to hunt.

Leandro will have to do the same.

Today is a very big day for the three orphans.

They must try to catch live prey for the first time in their lives.

If they can't hunt, they will never be released.

Without a mother to show them the way,

they must work it out for themselves.

Today's test is with a giant bird called a rhea.

It should be easy prey.

They are extremely common in the wild, and now farmed for their meat,

but using captive live animals for hunting is controversial.

We are giving them the chance to feed on live animals like this,

their natural prey. It's part of the process. We can't skip that part.

We can't go around that. It's completely necessary.

We either do that, or we leave the three cubs in captivity

for the rest of their lives.

The cub has seen it.

OK, Natalya, please open the gate.

Xavante quickly takes the lead.

RHEA BIRD SQUAWKS JAGUAR GROWLS

He makes a clean, fast kill.

He has shown that, with this first simple prey,

he is capable of hunting for himself.

JAGUAR GROWLS He's started to growl at me.

That shows he doesn't want to be seen as a cub any more -

he wants to be respected with his kill

and we might as well do that,

we might as well leave him with his prize, he did a great job.

His sisters, Maya and Kyra, will still need to prove themselves,

but for Xavante, it's a special moment - a coming-of-age.

The orphans have now reached full size

and are almost ready for release.

But they have one more test to complete.

Today, they face their toughest prey - the peccary.

An aggressive animal with extremely sharp tusks,

and an important part of the jaguars' diet.

If they can kill a peccary, they are ready for release.

Xavante and Kyra quickly dispatch it with no difficulty.

I'm really proud to see they are able to kill an adult peccary.

This is the best situation we could ever have

in the case of rehabilitating a predator

and teaching a predator how to hunt.

But not all of the orphans have passed the test.

The smallest of the three, Maya, has been injured by the peccary.

Come here. Let's see your wounds.

Turn, turn. Wow!

She really has a nasty injury here.

That shows how aggressive and how... a challenge the peccary is to kill.

Maya has always been the most gentle

and there are growing concerns she may not make it in the wild.

For us, it always seemed that Kyra and Xavante

were ready to move to the next step in terms of maturity,

in terms of behaviour,

and Maya, since the beginning, she's taken a little bit longer.

Where Maya is falling behind, Kyra is already reaching sexual maturity.

And it's not just her hormones that are changing.

Her scent has aroused the interest of her brother, Xavante.

Xavante's checking the grass for some scent in the air.

He's slowly changing his behaviour into a more mature behaviour,

like, you see how he's spraying?

Probably was one of the females, so he just sprayed now.

So that shows that he's coming to sexual maturity.

He's starting to read the environment in terms of smells

that interest him as an adult male.

PURRING AND GROWLING

With their biological clocks ticking,

the pressure is now on to release them.

But one problem still remains for the jaguars -

their bond with people.

Leandro and Anah had planned to cut off all physical contact

with the orphans in the months leading up to release...

..but they seem unable to let go.

Ironically, it's their love for the three orphans

that could endanger them most.

If the jaguars have no fear of people,

they are more likely to end up being shot in the wild.

'If we release three jaguars in the wild that are bonded to people,

'we know that this is a risk to them.

'It is possible that we made a mistake, that we're not

'so good as we expected to be in getting them away from humans.

'This is a pioneering work.'

This has never been done before,

and we will have to learn with the mistakes

for the future rehabilitation,

and it could be that we'll have to change the training process.

'We're learning, and we will have to learn from these mistakes,

'in order to correct for future rehabilitations.'

PURRING

What's happened? Why are you so nervous?

The other reason most big cat releases fail

is because they can't hunt for themselves,

so the orphans must now spend their last days in captivity

honing their hunting skills.

Kyra and Xavante become more and more expert.

And Maya, too, is gaining in confidence and skill -

perhaps learning from her brother and sister.

Then, one day, she takes on a peccary by herself.

The chase is quick, and she kills it with one bite

to the back of the neck.

GRUNTING

At last, she has proved herself ready for release.

This is one of the most exciting days for us,

because we were always concerned that Maya would never make it,

maybe never be that ready, and she's just proven that we were wrong.

She is capable of killing an adult white-lipped peccary.

After we release Kyra and Xavante, she can be free.

RASPY ROAR

Apart from their first few days with their mother in the wild,

the cubs have only ever known a life behind bars.

For the last two years, these wild-born predators

have been locked up in enclosures.

Finally, the time has come

for the first of the three orphans to be released.

Kyra has always been the wildest of the three,

and she will be the first to go.

She's had her satellite collar fitted and will now leave

her enclosure and her brother and sister for the last time.

We have just tested her radio signal.

We're getting one position on it every hour.

Means that the equipment's working.

She's ready, she's in good health. She's ready.

And we're ready, too.

Kyra is being taken to a specially selected area of forest,

far away from people.

The special thing about this area is that there is virtually

no cattle ranching going on here.

She has all the food she needs here and she has all the habitat,

and that's why we think she can do very well in this area.

We just hope she doesn't move away from here.

Leandro has built an enclosure at the release site,

so Kyra can get used to her new surroundings before she's set free.

ANAH DIRECTS LEANDRO IN PORTUGUESE

THEY SPEAK IN PORTUGUESE

After two years together, it's hard to say goodbye.

ANAH COOS IN PORTUGUESE

KYRA WHINES

A lot of things going on in my mind now

that makes me feel very happy,

privileged to be involved with this,

but very anxious, also, to see how this is going to all end up.

Leandro can talk today as a scientist,

but I will talk as a...

..Mother.

HE COMFORTS HER IN PORTUGUESE

..As a person that took care of this special animal.

I will miss Kyra.

It's really a mixed feeling in the air.

She's finally free,

but at the same time,

she's just having this dramatic separation from us

and from her brother and sister.

It is a sad moment, but at the same time, there's some excitement

and some expectation that she'll have a good life.

In her first few weeks in the wild,

Kyra spends most of her time in sugar cane plantations,

and is adapting well to her new life.

By looking at the data coming in from her satellite collar,

the team can chart Kyra's exact movements, hour by hour.

When she spends two days in the same spot,

this may mean that she has made a kill, but they need to check.

ANAH SPEAKS IN PORTUGUESE Mm-hm.

THEY SPEAK IN PORTUGUESE

This is the special moment we were waiting for Kyra.

This is a white-lipped peccary, and it's an adult.

It shows that she's able to survive, going after her own food,

not depending on us,

so all her learning in captivity is being put in practice here.

This is the proof of it.

She got her first adult peccary in the wild.

With such positive results, they now have the green light

to release Xavante and Maya.

Leandro's releasing them together, in the hope that

Xavante can help his little sister, Maya, if she runs into trouble.

At first, Xavante seems unsure of himself,

and keeps looking back at Leandro.

Maya's first reaction to freedom is to climb the nearest tree.

She was always their biggest concern,

but she's finally made it into the wild.

She joins her brother,

and together they turn their back on their old life,

and walk away into the forest.

Back home, they track the orphans' progress.

And it's not long before there's a problem.

On only his second day in the wild,

Xavante is exploring his new surroundings

when he suddenly stops moving.

Xavante's signal is coming from this place,

and he's not moving for the last 15 hours.

THEY SPEAK IN PORTUGUESE

Xavante!

Xavante!

Xavante!

It could be his collar has come off,

or it could be worse.

Xavante!

PURRING

-Ah, he answered.

-Yes.

Look.

Xavante. Hey, cara.

ANAH CALLS IN PORTUGUESE

For some reason, Xavante's been lying low in the same spot

and not moving.

-Hey.

-Hey. Hey, hey, hey.

When they look closer,

they see he's been badly injured by a group of peccaries.

His wounds are terrible.

He has wounds all over - his chin, his paws, really badly injured.

Here, on his belly.

There was a big fight.

It doesn't seem that he fed on them.

He doesn't have a full stomach.

Look at this cut.

It's a real bad injury, but I'm sure he is going to heal from it,

and I just hope that he gained more experience

and he's going to be more precise next time.

Xavante...

The plan was to cut off all contact with the orphans after release,

but in this case, they felt they had to intervene.

To know that Xavante's badly injured is very important.

If we didn't come and check on him,

we would never understand exactly what is happening with him,

and I know it's not what we really wanted, but it's necessary

to understand where we have failures and where we have successes.

And I think as soon as we know about this,

we will cut our contact straight to them.

After a dose of antiseptic, Xavante heads off back into the wilderness,

worse for wear, but wiser.

Back at the house, everything seems very quiet...

..but the family soon have a new arrival.

THEY SPEAK IN PORTUGUESE

Another jaguar orphan has been brought in,

after its mother was shot,

and Leandro and Anah are now back to where they started.

The problem that we're facing with the jaguar is far from being solved.

If we don't stop the killing of jaguars out there,

we will continue having orphans like this, and if we don't find

a solution to stop the killing now, this species will become extinct.

That is a fact.

Immediately after release, Maya splits up with her brother.

But after exploring the area, she comes back to find him.

They were released together so Xavante would take care of her,

but it seems Maya is looking after him.

Kyra soon moves out of the sugar cane and takes up residence

in a large eucalyptus plantation.

Leandro and Anah hope Kyra will stay in this area,

away from cattle ranchers...

..but a jaguar's home range covers over 30 square miles.

Roaming such large distances, it's only a matter of time

before Kyra and her two siblings come across people.

Of course, we are worried about them being out there on their own,

crossing human-dominated landscape like this, and having

the chance to meet a cowboy and being shot, but now we've done our part

and we just hope they have the luck to not meet humans again and be shot.

It's still early days for this project.

To be a real success, the jaguars must not only survive,

but find a mate and raise their own families.

But these are the first steps towards

a new life for these orphans -

and new hope for all abandoned jaguar cubs.