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This is North America's big cat. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
Known as a mountain lion or a cougar. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:46 | |
They appear powerful... | 0:00:48 | 0:00:50 | |
COUGAR HISSES AND SNARLS | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
..intimidating... | 0:00:54 | 0:00:56 | |
COUGAR HISSES | 0:00:56 | 0:00:58 | |
..and deadly. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
But incredibly, very little has been discovered about them... | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
..until now. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
This film follows a year in the life | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
of two amazing mountain lion families nestled in the Rockies. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:30 | |
MAN: Going hot. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
They are part of the most intense study ever carried out on | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
mountain lions in North America. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
By sharing intimate moments in the secretive lives of these families | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
and their neighbours... | 0:01:55 | 0:01:57 | |
..scientists are finally revealing | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
the true nature of North America's big cat. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
Mountain lions can be found | 0:03:06 | 0:03:08 | |
right across the western states of the USA. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
Not that you'd know it. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
They're wary, elusive creatures... | 0:03:18 | 0:03:20 | |
..ghostly figures on the landscape. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
Which is why hard scientific evidence about their behaviour | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
is thin on the ground. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
It's generally been assumed that mountain lions are solitary animals | 0:03:36 | 0:03:42 | |
and that the only interactions between adults | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
either result in mating or violence. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
But now those assumptions are being challenged. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
Just north of Jackson, Wyoming, | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
the scientists of Panthera's Teton Cougar Project | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
have been carrying out the most exhaustive study ever conducted | 0:04:09 | 0:04:13 | |
into mountain lions in the USA. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
She's here. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
There. If you kind of get onto this first shelf and go around that way. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
Under the leadership of Mark Elbroch, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
the team have been using the latest in GPS technology | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
to track mountain lions. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
She's moved quite a bit, which is good, | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
-so we should get in there and set some cameras. -Sounds good. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:41 | |
And then record their behaviour on video cameras. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
They're using 13 years of data and thousands of video clips | 0:04:48 | 0:04:53 | |
to re-write our understanding of mountain lion behaviour. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
Oh, let's have a look at what this is. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
They also hope to answer one burning question. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
In our study area, the population of mountain lions | 0:05:05 | 0:05:08 | |
has dropped by about half in | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
the last seven to eight years. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
And our goal has really been | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
to figure out why. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
Like any big Hollywood film the project has its stars - | 0:05:18 | 0:05:23 | |
two, in fact. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
The first is known as F61. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
When I think of a successful mountain lion | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
she is the one I think of. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
F61 is strong, she's physically able, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:49 | |
she's the most competent hunter. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
She is really the epitome of a successful mountain lion. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:56 | |
F61 currently has two, one-year-old kittens. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:06 | |
A male... | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
..and a female, who is affectionately known as Frostbite. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:14 | |
They're almost as big as their mother, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
but there's no doubt who's in charge. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:23 | |
SHE HISSES | 0:06:25 | 0:06:26 | |
Despite the kittens' size, they're still dependent on their mother. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:35 | |
It will be another six months before they will have learnt how to hunt | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
and all the skills they will need to survive on their own. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
Their neighbour in the study area is the other star of the project. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
F51. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:05 | |
Having filmed her for several years, | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
Mark has noticed her parenting style is quite different. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:17 | |
51 does not provide for her kittens as well as 61 does. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:23 | |
51 is a loose, | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
you might even say like a hippy mother, | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
just providing lots of love, | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
but not necessarily all the sustenance they need. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
Thanks to "Easy-going" F51, | 0:07:46 | 0:07:50 | |
"Super Mum" F61, and other cats, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
Mark has been granted an incredible insight into | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
the world of the mountain lion. | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
He's witnessed intimate moments of mountain lions playing... | 0:07:59 | 0:08:05 | |
..eating together... | 0:08:14 | 0:08:16 | |
..and caching their kills, covering them up to minimise | 0:08:25 | 0:08:30 | |
the chances of a scavenger stealing a free meal. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
He's also been able to witness some truly unique moments in their lives. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
In this video we caught something incredibly rare. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:53 | |
Note the carcass. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
F61 and F51 are about to appear. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
Don't blink. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:05 | |
F51 and 61. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
And 61 wins and takes off. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:10 | |
It's just a very quick, lightning speed, | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
mountain lion speed you might say, | 0:09:14 | 0:09:17 | |
they fought over the carcass and 61 ran off with it. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
Amidst the thousands of videos Mark has studied, | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
documenting dozens of interactions, | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
this video is one of just four in which there is any violence. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:33 | |
We've come to realise by doing this research | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
that physical contact is not the rule, it's the exception. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:44 | |
Mark has many videos that record non-violent interactions, | 0:09:47 | 0:09:52 | |
and the first footage Mark ever captured of a meeting | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
between two female mountain lions is a good example. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:59 | |
Here comes a nine-year-old resident female, and she comes round, | 0:09:59 | 0:10:05 | |
she turns, and here comes a six-year-old female. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
She's doing mild hissing. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
And in the beginning we thought, | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
"Gosh, all that hissing - it's the pre-runner to violence. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
"It's super aggressive." | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
No, hissing seems pretty normal | 0:10:19 | 0:10:21 | |
now that we've seen it over and over and over again. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:25 | |
So, what happened next? | 0:10:25 | 0:10:26 | |
They spent two days together and this is what they did. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
They shared a meal. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
It blew me away. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:35 | |
Having now viewed thousands of videos, | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
Mark has concluded that most of the previously held assumptions about | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
mountain lions are wrong. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
We're beginning to describe a species that has some sort of social system, | 0:10:49 | 0:10:54 | |
that is interacting with a frequency that challenges this idea that | 0:10:54 | 0:10:59 | |
they are solitary animals. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
And it's just opening our eyes and completely turning everything | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
on its head on what we thought were the social lives of mountain lions. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:08 | |
"Easy-going" F51 has recently given birth to a new litter of kittens. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:21 | |
KITTENS SQUEAK | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
As this incredible footage reveals, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
for the first five weeks of life the kittens remain in their den, | 0:11:30 | 0:11:34 | |
living off their mother's milk. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
But their mother, F51, will still need to hunt during this period. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:44 | |
So, while she's several miles away, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
Mark and his team slip in to assess the kittens' health. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
MARK: Someone hold that one nice and tight. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
We're good. Here we go. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
I hear 'em. I hear kittens. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
SQUEAKING | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
OK, we got one. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
OK, little buddy. It's all right. There's our first kitten. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
Oh, my goodness. Oh. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
All right. Nicely done. Beautiful. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
The team have limited time to work before F51 returns. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:24 | |
OK. Number two. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
Oh, nice biting pretty hard. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
All right. There we go. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
Looks like a male to me. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:34 | |
Number three. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
Holy mackerel, watch that back leg. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:45 | |
Here we go. Coming out. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
Even at this early age the kittens have distinct personalities. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:52 | |
This guy's... He's a loose cannon. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
Whoever's holding this bag, do not let go. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
He is our most lively cat to date. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
All right. We're good. Let's get some work done. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
Each kitten is weighed... | 0:13:06 | 0:13:07 | |
This one is three and a half pounds. That is small. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:13 | |
..and sexed. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:15 | |
And we hold it like that, this is a female. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:17 | |
Then each one is fitted with a special expandable | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
kitten-sized radio collar. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
This the part where you try not to get bit. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
And then we go one ear at a time. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
Like so. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
Beautiful. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
Only when the kittens are bigger will they be given a GPS version. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
RADIO HISSES She is online. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
Each kitten is allocated a study number and an ear tag. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
The number of this female is going to be 99. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:55 | |
-WOMAN: -F99. -Correct. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
Monitoring kittens is a key part of the Cougar Project's work. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
Tagged, collared. You checked the collar? | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
This is a critical age for kitten survivorship. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:08 | |
And many don't even make it to the first steps beyond the den. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:13 | |
But here we'll be able to track these four kittens | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
and see whether they survive to disperse on their own. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
The kittens' chances of making it to adulthood are not good. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
KITTEN HISSES | 0:14:26 | 0:14:28 | |
HOWLING | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
HOWLING | 0:14:34 | 0:14:38 | |
Wolves were recently reintroduced into this area of Wyoming. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:46 | |
Not only do they compete for available prey, like elk and deer, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
but wolf packs will often chase a mountain lion off a kill. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:55 | |
Worse still, they will kill any kittens they come across. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
Mountain lions are also threatened by humans. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:10 | |
They can legally be hunted at this time of year, | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
and being collared and clearly part of a scientific study | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
offers no protection. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
Even the weather poses a threat. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
This is a particularly harsh environment. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
We get frigid temperatures, deep snow. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
HOWLING | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
There's all these dominant predators here, | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
competitors with mountain lions that threaten youngsters. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:51 | |
So, it's incredibly hard for small kittens to survive. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
But the arrival of winter, | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
with long periods of sub-zero temperatures, is not all bad news. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:08 | |
For the scientists it's also a time of opportunity. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
This is capture season. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
Fresh snow gives Mark and the team the best chance of tracking | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
and capturing adult mountain lions | 0:16:20 | 0:16:22 | |
so they can add them to the study group. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
It's essential work if their research is to be successful. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
This time last year we were monitoring 15 animals - | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
there was nine adults and six kittens. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
Now as we enter this capture season we're down to six cats. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:45 | |
And that's because cats have been killed, cats have dispersed, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:50 | |
collars have malfunctioned. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:52 | |
And now we're trying to boost back up | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
to maintain our research for the next coming year. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
The team have been joined by Boone Smith and his father Sam, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:06 | |
experienced mountain lion houndsmen. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
We're off. We'll go get 'em. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:10 | |
Yeehaw. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:14 | |
Today the team are on the hunt for a particularly large cat | 0:17:14 | 0:17:19 | |
known as the "Crystal Male". | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
His nickname is a reference to a nearby creek, | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
and Mark has made several unsuccessful attempts | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
to capture him before. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:30 | |
All right. Let's catch this guy. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
They got a track right there, man. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
Dogs are winding it. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:38 | |
The "Crystal Male" is currently the only resident male in | 0:17:38 | 0:17:42 | |
the study area, so understanding how he interacts with | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
the females like F51 and F61 is crucial to Mark's research. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:51 | |
We've been following the cat for about a mile and a half. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
He's come up here and then he's rolled. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
Thrown himself to this side several times. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
You can see the back of him, with all the fur sticking in the snow. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:08 | |
And then his footprints. We call these stand-up prints. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:13 | |
You can see that this has gone all crispy from the heat of the body. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
He spent enough time here that he melted the snow, | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
and so when he stood up in it, it freezes those first few tracks. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:23 | |
And then he goes off and nice fresh tracks. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:27 | |
The tracks are so recent the team ready the hounds. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:32 | |
If they get close to a mountain lion | 0:18:32 | 0:18:35 | |
it will instinctively take refuge in a tree | 0:18:35 | 0:18:37 | |
allowing the scientists to catch up and hopefully capture it. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:42 | |
HOUNDS HOWL AND BARK | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
Right now they're on top of the rock line. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
Depending on the chase, it may be minutes, or possibly hours, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
before the team see the hounds again. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
Say your lion, come right here. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
-See when he goes back. -Think he goes back. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
-I don't know, Sam. -Huh? No. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
We got a long haul. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
Having started at sun-up, | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
they finally reach the barking dogs late in the afternoon. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:40 | |
DOGS BARK | 0:19:40 | 0:19:42 | |
The dogs have successfully chased their quarry up a tree. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
He's big! | 0:19:51 | 0:19:53 | |
But with sunset less than an hour away, Mark must work quickly. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:03 | |
It's so exciting. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:04 | |
It looks like we are going to catch the "Crystal Male," | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
who has eluded us for two years. And he's a big boy. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
Gorgeous, gorgeous, big boy. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
And we tighten it. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:16 | |
The plan is to anaesthetise the cat using a dart gun. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:21 | |
Going hot. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:22 | |
You ready? | 0:20:22 | 0:20:24 | |
COUGAR GROWLS | 0:20:25 | 0:20:26 | |
-Time? -3.45. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
He's going to go down this time. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
But the "Crystal Male" is not going to go easily. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
He's jumping. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:37 | |
He's trying to come out, he's coming down the other side. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
DOGS BARK AND HOWL | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
COUGAR GROWLS All right, no, no dogs! | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
Where's the bag? | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
I got him. I'm with you, go. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:50 | |
By the time Mark and the team catch up with the drugged cat, | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
night is falling. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
OK, go ahead, Mark. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:18 | |
Here, I need your head lamp. Shine over here. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
The "Crystal Male" is so big, the collar they have only just fits. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:25 | |
The collar's on. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:27 | |
So, I think when he relaxes, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
it's going to be actually a pretty good fit. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
There you go. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:35 | |
The cat is given its study number, M85. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
Having checked his vital signs, the team retreat to minimise | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
disturbance as he comes round. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
After a brief night's sleep, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:02 | |
the team are eager to see if the collar is working correctly. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
We captured him right on the edge of this cliff | 0:22:08 | 0:22:13 | |
and he's moved up there and then down along the cliff, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
and this is his usual travel route. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
We've seen his sign all along here, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
and he's going to just go back to his routine, | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
heading into the centre of his home range. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
Super. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:29 | |
That will probably keep him | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
beyond the typical movements of hunters, so it's nice to see. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:36 | |
Capturing M85 was particularly exciting for our research project. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:43 | |
Our study area is quite vast, | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
I mean, it's over 2,000 square kilometres | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
and these males have VAST territories. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:53 | |
Four times, sometimes, the size of a female territory. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
Overlaying M85's movements with data from F51, F61 | 0:22:57 | 0:23:04 | |
and other females in the study area, will be a significant contribution | 0:23:04 | 0:23:09 | |
to the project's understanding of male-female mountain lion dynamics. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:14 | |
Large herds of wintering elk are the main food source for | 0:23:27 | 0:23:31 | |
mountain lions at this time of year. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:34 | |
"Easy-going" F51 must average between | 0:23:36 | 0:23:40 | |
three and four kills every month to feed her young family. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:44 | |
They face other pressures, too. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:49 | |
Night-time temperatures have plummeted to -25 degrees centigrade. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:57 | |
Several of the kittens have lost the tips of their ears | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
and tails to the extreme cold. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
If these unusually low temperatures persist, Mark knows | 0:24:06 | 0:24:10 | |
the kittens may struggle to survive. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
That's a kitten, isn't it? | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
Oh, my God. We've got a dead kitten. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
Oh. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
The radio collar clearly identifies the body | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
as one of F51's young kittens. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
It was inevitable, but, yeah... | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
There are no signs of a predator nearby. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
OK, got the family group coming out this way. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
So, Mark examines the body to try and determine the cause of death. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:56 | |
Skull's intact. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:00 | |
I live mountain lions. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:03 | |
I track them, I watch videos of them, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:08 | |
I go to sleep at night and I dream about mountain lions. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:12 | |
It's such a privilege to be able to work with a species like this. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
But when I come across the actual body of a dead mountain lion, | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
I almost go numb and the scientist takes over. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
Observe, record, figure out what happened. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
External wounds essentially non-existent. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:34 | |
I see absolutely no trauma, no signs. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
But that night it'll hit me. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
They're part of my world. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
You know, I'm following their lives every day... | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
and then it's a loss. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
So small. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
It looks like the kitten may have died from exposure, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:02 | |
possibly after falling into a nearby stream. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
The harsh conditions persist, keeping predators | 0:26:15 | 0:26:19 | |
and prey low down in the valleys. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
So it's not surprising that F51's young family suffers another | 0:26:23 | 0:26:28 | |
death a few weeks later. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
HOWLING | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
Her family were feeding on a carcass and a wolf pack came in | 0:26:33 | 0:26:37 | |
and chased them up the mountain and away. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
And one kitten disappeared on the landscape. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
There was no sign of that kitten ever again. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
"Easy-going" F51 has now lost half of her original litter of four. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:59 | |
It'll be another year before her remaining six-month-old | 0:27:00 | 0:27:04 | |
kittens are able to fend for themselves. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
It just goes to show how successful her neighbour, | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
"Super Mum" F61, has been. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
She has managed to raise two kittens from a litter of three | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
almost to adulthood. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:22 | |
Frostbite and her brother are the mountain lion | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
equivalent of teenagers. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
But like adolescents the world over, | 0:27:33 | 0:27:35 | |
they show little appreciation for their mother's efforts. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
Her son, in particular, is trying to assert his dominance. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:45 | |
MOTHER COUGAR GROWLS | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
Soon these youngsters will leave to establish their own territories. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
When they do, their mother may well look for a male to mate with | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
and have another litter. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:36 | |
The most likely candidate is M85, the "Crystal Male." | 0:28:37 | 0:28:42 | |
Since being collared, Mark has followed his movements closely. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:48 | |
A process that has given him a unique opportunity to witness | 0:28:50 | 0:28:54 | |
some extraordinary mountain lion behaviour. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:56 | |
This particular day I will remember forever. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:03 | |
It took us nearly two hours to locate where M85 was on this mountain | 0:29:09 | 0:29:13 | |
and I set up the scope, and we had this camera rolling, | 0:29:13 | 0:29:18 | |
and then this happened. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
Something I never expected to see. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:31 | |
Here are three adult mountain lions moving on the landscape. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:36 | |
That is not antisocial, that is not solitary. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:40 | |
Three adult mountain lions - | 0:29:40 | 0:29:42 | |
two females sharing the male, if you will, like a resource, and then the | 0:29:42 | 0:29:48 | |
snow came in and made it impossible to track their movements, | 0:29:48 | 0:29:52 | |
but then when it cleared, we watched M85 mating with | 0:29:52 | 0:29:56 | |
another mountain lion ten feet away. | 0:29:56 | 0:29:58 | |
Never in my wildest dreams would I have predicted such | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
an encounter and as far as I know, this has never ever been documented. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:08 | |
One reason that M85 might be in such demand | 0:30:11 | 0:30:16 | |
is that he's one of the few males left in the study area. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:20 | |
M29, the father of F51's kittens, was shot recently by hunters, | 0:30:21 | 0:30:27 | |
which means breeding male mountain lions are in short supply. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:32 | |
However, M29's remaining offspring and their mother are thriving. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:38 | |
And if "Easy-going" F51 can shepherd them | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
successfully through the final weeks of winter, | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
their chances of continued survival will improve dramatically. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:49 | |
Now, with spring just around the corner, life should get easier. | 0:31:31 | 0:31:36 | |
But data from F51's collar reveals disturbing news. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:51 | |
That doesn't make any sense at all. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:53 | |
The e-mail is an alert. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:57 | |
"Mortality Data" means that F51's collar | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
hasn't moved at all for 18 hours. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:03 | |
It may just have fallen off, but what's concerning is that | 0:32:04 | 0:32:08 | |
the GPS data shows that F51 and M85 have crossed paths. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:15 | |
While Mark's research has shown that mountain lion fights are rare, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:19 | |
the signs are ominous. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:20 | |
Mark heads off to solve the mystery. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
On his way, he scans the snow for clues. | 0:32:36 | 0:32:39 | |
Something's going up and down here I want to look at. | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
Here she is. Here they are running across. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
Look at the size of M85's footprints. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:52 | |
Big. Right here. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:54 | |
The trail leads Mark towards the GPS point indicated by the collar. | 0:33:00 | 0:33:05 | |
This is it. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:09 | |
F51 and her family came down this chute. | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
And they must have been making noise, | 0:33:14 | 0:33:16 | |
kicking rocks or calling, kittens playing, who knows? | 0:33:16 | 0:33:20 | |
And M85 comes up right here, right off his kill, | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
and they engage for the first time right here. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:27 | |
And it's boom! | 0:33:27 | 0:33:28 | |
It's just covered in cat fur. These cats are actually fighting. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:32 | |
In ten years of studying mountain lions, I've seen this once before. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
Fur everywhere. Look at them. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:37 | |
They've rolled over and they've gone down hill, | 0:33:37 | 0:33:39 | |
and there's the first sign blood. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:41 | |
You can see they've slid down the hill down here. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
Let's just keep following it down. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:46 | |
Oh, my gosh. I think I can see something from here. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:49 | |
Ah. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:51 | |
This is exactly what you don't want to see. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
Phew. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:55 | |
Oooh, it looks bad. | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
Unbelievable. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:03 | |
Ah. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:07 | |
Oh... | 0:34:07 | 0:34:09 | |
It's F51. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:13 | |
She's been killed by a bite to the head. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:17 | |
51. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:21 | |
How many times I've seen her in the wild, slipping around a corner. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:25 | |
This is a huge loss for us, a huge loss for the project. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:28 | |
Just going to remove the collar. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:30 | |
And so she started a wild mountain lion | 0:34:35 | 0:34:39 | |
and she'll end a wild mountain lion. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:41 | |
One question answered. We now know what happened to F51. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:51 | |
But now the next question is, what's happening with her kittens? | 0:34:51 | 0:34:55 | |
All right. Well...yeah. | 0:34:57 | 0:34:59 | |
Their future is bleak. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:02 | |
The tracks in the snow tell Mark what has happened, | 0:35:08 | 0:35:12 | |
but there seems to be no answer to the question, why? | 0:35:12 | 0:35:15 | |
Spinning through the project's video archive doesn't help either. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:23 | |
There are plenty of instances of males interacting with females, | 0:35:25 | 0:35:29 | |
but none result in violence, even if the female has kittens with her. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:34 | |
Every time we've seen a male approach a female outside courtship, | 0:35:35 | 0:35:40 | |
this is exactly what they do. They slink in. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:44 | |
Notice how low he's holding his body to the ground. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:47 | |
Notice how his ears are to the side and almost sagging. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:51 | |
They minimise their profile, they try to look smaller. | 0:35:51 | 0:35:55 | |
It is completely non-aggressive, non-threatening in every way. | 0:35:55 | 0:36:00 | |
He clearly just wants to share a meal | 0:36:00 | 0:36:02 | |
and you can see as he comes in, F61, there's no hissing, | 0:36:02 | 0:36:07 | |
there's nothing, she just watches. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
She doesn't place herself in between her kitten and him, | 0:36:09 | 0:36:13 | |
and it's the kitten that does all the hissing. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
There they are. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:21 | |
Massive resident adult male, feeding on the carcass, | 0:36:21 | 0:36:26 | |
three-month-old kitten and mother falling asleep in the background. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:31 | |
F51's orphaned kittens are now eight months old, | 0:36:42 | 0:36:47 | |
and can only be tracked with basic radio technology, | 0:36:47 | 0:36:50 | |
making it difficult to pin-point their location. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:54 | |
Since their mother's death, they haven't been seen. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:57 | |
Only the rhythmic heartbeat of the radio signal tells | 0:37:00 | 0:37:04 | |
the team that the kittens are still alive. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:06 | |
The primary challenge that these kittens face is starvation. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:12 | |
Research would suggest that they have absolutely no chance at survival. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:18 | |
That most kittens orphaned, less than one year old will die. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:22 | |
At least the spring thaw means F51's orphans won't freeze to death. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:32 | |
And, four weeks after losing their mother, they've reached | 0:37:34 | 0:37:38 | |
the spot where Mark will be able to get a good look at them. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
FAINT CLICKING | 0:37:44 | 0:37:46 | |
You hear that? There they are. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:48 | |
I'll bet you they're down the river bottom and let's see | 0:37:48 | 0:37:52 | |
if we can have a look. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:53 | |
All right. Let me grab my pack. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:55 | |
Mark knows he has to tread carefully. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:01 | |
He could easily scare the kittens away. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:04 | |
Oh! | 0:38:07 | 0:38:09 | |
I've got one. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:11 | |
She's...She's eating this nasty, nasty elk carcass. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:17 | |
Well, that answers one question. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:21 | |
They've been surviving for a month on their own, | 0:38:21 | 0:38:24 | |
and this is the perfect time because all this food's appearing. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:28 | |
Look at that. | 0:38:28 | 0:38:30 | |
She's tearing into that old elk. Oh! | 0:38:34 | 0:38:38 | |
Incredible. Where is her sister? | 0:38:41 | 0:38:45 | |
Where is her sister? | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
I've got her. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:51 | |
She's just lying out there. Right in the open. Oh, beautiful! | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
Incredible. I can't believe we can see them. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
They look great. They're healthy, they're stocky. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:11 | |
So great to see them feeding on carcasses, | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
but it's dangerous. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:27 | |
Everybody else feeds on carcasses too. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:35 | |
To be near something so smelly can draw in grizzly bears, | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
black bears, wolves. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:41 | |
If they're not careful, they could be food themselves. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
If their mother had still been alive, | 0:39:46 | 0:39:48 | |
the kittens would have remained within a fairly defined range. | 0:39:48 | 0:39:52 | |
Without her influence, the orphans roam far | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
and wide to scavenge for food. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:00 | |
They're not the only cats on the move. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
Springtime usually sees adolescent mountain lions | 0:40:14 | 0:40:18 | |
leaving their mother to establish their own territories. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:22 | |
It's often the biggest challenge they will ever face. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
It's an uncertain time in the sense that they face unknown dangers. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:34 | |
They are navigating in between the territories | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
of established mountain lions. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:38 | |
They are trying to find a place where they have | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
other mountain lions nearby, so that they can socialise and mate, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:47 | |
and also have the resources in terms of prey | 0:40:47 | 0:40:49 | |
that can sustain them and their future families. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:52 | |
"Super Mum" F61's son has gone north, out of the study area, | 0:40:55 | 0:41:02 | |
but her daughter, Frostbite, has remained close to home. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
So, I'm just going to pull up Frostbite's data. | 0:41:07 | 0:41:10 | |
It's really been fun to watch her sort of explore and try to disperse, | 0:41:10 | 0:41:14 | |
if you will, and then return to her mother a couple of times. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
So here, for instance, we saw a little exploratory journey | 0:41:17 | 0:41:21 | |
out into the National Park | 0:41:21 | 0:41:22 | |
and then, finally, started moving south. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:26 | |
And, of course, she's following the natural terrain, just following the | 0:41:26 | 0:41:30 | |
mountains down and she follows them straight down to the town of Jackson. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:35 | |
She's been the perfect mountain lion, | 0:41:35 | 0:41:37 | |
in the sense that nobody knows that she's there. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:40 | |
Despite her proximity to town, Frostbite appears to be doing well. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:47 | |
This mule deer carcass may be evidence | 0:41:49 | 0:41:51 | |
of her first independent kill. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:53 | |
Remote cameras are set up. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:56 | |
Under the cover of darkness, Frostbite reveals herself. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
She's doing super. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:25 | |
She's on her own, she's surviving, she's hunting, | 0:42:26 | 0:42:30 | |
she's establishing a territory. | 0:42:30 | 0:42:33 | |
She's doing everything we would hope that a disbursing mountain lion | 0:42:33 | 0:42:37 | |
would have the opportunity to do. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:39 | |
Frostbite has proved that she has the skills to survive on her own, | 0:42:43 | 0:42:48 | |
even in a noisy neighbourhood. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:50 | |
F51's orphaned kittens have yet to develop their survival skills. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:15 | |
Small prey like squirrels might supply them with enough to eat. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:20 | |
But that would depend on them catching one. | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
Mark's video archive offers an insight | 0:43:54 | 0:43:58 | |
into the challenges the nine-month-old orphans face. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:01 | |
This video is particularly difficult to watch. | 0:44:01 | 0:44:04 | |
F61 has maimed a fawn and left her kittens to figure it out. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:10 | |
And you can see these two kittens, which are 12 months old, | 0:44:11 | 0:44:15 | |
have no idea how to kill it. | 0:44:15 | 0:44:17 | |
They're batting it and trying to figure out | 0:44:17 | 0:44:20 | |
how to turn this into food. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:22 | |
This is important because it illustrates how in-equipped kittens | 0:44:24 | 0:44:29 | |
are to survive on their own even at one year old, | 0:44:29 | 0:44:34 | |
and how dependent upon their mothers they are even at this age. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:38 | |
Mark had not expected the kittens to survive longer than | 0:44:43 | 0:44:47 | |
a month on their own. | 0:44:47 | 0:44:48 | |
Somehow they have scraped by, scavenging from carcasses | 0:44:48 | 0:44:52 | |
they have found. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:53 | |
Both are smaller than they should be, but while one of them | 0:44:55 | 0:44:58 | |
looks alert, the other is lethargic, | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
clearly struggling. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:03 | |
Now, ten weeks after their mother's death, | 0:45:12 | 0:45:14 | |
Mark heads out to check on them again. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:17 | |
For one the struggle has proved too much. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:20 | |
Mark finds the corpse of the weaker kitten, F75. | 0:45:23 | 0:45:27 | |
I can only imagine that... she starved to death, | 0:45:34 | 0:45:38 | |
which is not surprising given that | 0:45:38 | 0:45:40 | |
the last time we saw her she looked bony. | 0:45:40 | 0:45:44 | |
Her hips were jutting out, you could see that she was significantly | 0:45:44 | 0:45:49 | |
slimmer, skinnier than her sister. | 0:45:49 | 0:45:52 | |
You know, we'll keep following F99 and hope for the best. | 0:46:00 | 0:46:04 | |
F99 is now the sole survivor of F51's final litter. | 0:46:28 | 0:46:33 | |
Holy mackerel. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:42 | |
Watch that back leg. There we go. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:45 | |
The number of this female is going to be 99. | 0:46:50 | 0:46:55 | |
-F99. -Correct. | 0:46:55 | 0:46:57 | |
F99's chances of continued survival will depend on her learning | 0:47:03 | 0:47:08 | |
to hunt on her own. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:09 | |
Scavenging food from old kills is inherently risky. | 0:47:11 | 0:47:15 | |
Carcasses attract all sorts of predators. | 0:47:16 | 0:47:19 | |
Even other scavengers are a threat. | 0:47:26 | 0:47:28 | |
Circling vultures indicate a carcass is nearby. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
But these bald eagles aren't willing to share the spoils. | 0:47:42 | 0:47:46 | |
On this occasion, F99 is chased away, hungry but unhurt. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:39 | |
Surprisingly, over the next few weeks she appears to put on weight. | 0:48:45 | 0:48:49 | |
It's just a hunch, | 0:48:54 | 0:48:55 | |
but Mark and his team suspect she may have figured out how to hunt. | 0:48:55 | 0:48:59 | |
No sign of her, huh? | 0:49:04 | 0:49:05 | |
The only way to be sure is to fit her with a GPS collar and watch | 0:49:07 | 0:49:11 | |
for the telltale cluster of data points that could indicate a kill. | 0:49:11 | 0:49:16 | |
Gorgeous. That's what we want to eat. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
So, they set a baited trap to lure her in. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:23 | |
Nice little treasure for her. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:25 | |
There she goes. | 0:49:26 | 0:49:27 | |
The lure works. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:30 | |
There. | 0:49:32 | 0:49:33 | |
OK, you ready? On three - one, two, three. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:41 | |
Once she's been anaesthetised, she's kept wet to stop her overheating. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:46 | |
Now Mark can fit her collar and check her health. | 0:49:46 | 0:49:49 | |
So, F99 looks way better than I expected. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:52 | |
She's thin, she's small, | 0:49:52 | 0:49:54 | |
she's essentially a stunted version of a mountain lion, | 0:49:54 | 0:49:58 | |
just barely half of what I expected her to weigh at this time. | 0:49:58 | 0:50:01 | |
-16. -16. She's about... | 0:50:03 | 0:50:08 | |
36 pounds. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:10 | |
But she looks really well. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:12 | |
She's actually got, you know, musculature developing. | 0:50:12 | 0:50:18 | |
She's all right. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:20 | |
There's one development that is a particularly good sign. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:24 | |
Here her adult teeth have begun to come in. | 0:50:25 | 0:50:28 | |
They're not full-size yet, | 0:50:28 | 0:50:30 | |
but they're big enough to do some hunting. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:32 | |
Having confirmed that F99 is healthy | 0:50:36 | 0:50:39 | |
and has the weaponry to make a kill, | 0:50:39 | 0:50:42 | |
the team follow her movements closely over the next few days. | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
Almost immediately a suspicious cluster of points | 0:50:49 | 0:50:53 | |
draws Mark into the field. | 0:50:53 | 0:50:55 | |
Yes! She's killed something. Look at the fur! | 0:51:01 | 0:51:05 | |
It's the remains of a coyote pup, which the orphan has picked clean. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:12 | |
That's the tail. She even gave a good chew on that. | 0:51:14 | 0:51:18 | |
This is a big deal. | 0:51:18 | 0:51:20 | |
She killed something with teeth, something that could fight back. | 0:51:20 | 0:51:25 | |
This is a turning point. She might just make it | 0:51:25 | 0:51:28 | |
and survive the winter. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:29 | |
F99 has surprised us at every turn. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
The fact that she learned to hunt on her own. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:46 | |
And survived in a landscape with predators and people | 0:51:48 | 0:51:51 | |
and all sorts of other dangers. | 0:51:51 | 0:51:53 | |
Throughout this entire year, she has persevered. | 0:51:58 | 0:52:00 | |
I remember one of the bits of video that we caught, | 0:52:02 | 0:52:04 | |
she's under this tree, in this vast meadow, and it's pouring rain. | 0:52:04 | 0:52:09 | |
And there she is, this tiny little mountain lion, alone. | 0:52:15 | 0:52:19 | |
And you just feel how alone she is and so... | 0:52:21 | 0:52:26 | |
it's warming to see when she's doing well. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:28 | |
F99 is not the only one at a turning point. | 0:52:33 | 0:52:37 | |
The scientists of the Teton Cougar Project are presenting | 0:52:43 | 0:52:47 | |
their findings to the wider scientific community. | 0:52:47 | 0:52:51 | |
This young female still lives locally and is doing quite well. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:55 | |
Mark's work is pretty amazing because he's using new | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
technology to really teach us new things about this keystone predator. | 0:52:58 | 0:53:02 | |
So many things that we haven't known about cougars that are | 0:53:02 | 0:53:06 | |
coming to light through this work. It's just astonishing. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
A lot of the things that we're learning shows us | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
how highly social cougars are and the cougar to cougar interactions | 0:53:12 | 0:53:15 | |
are just extremely powerful. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:18 | |
The project's work is also solving the riddle behind the dramatic | 0:53:21 | 0:53:24 | |
drop in mountain lion numbers. There are two governing factors. | 0:53:24 | 0:53:31 | |
So, as wolves increased in the system, | 0:53:31 | 0:53:33 | |
all three age classes dropped in survivorship. | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
The reintroduction of wolves has had a dramatic effect | 0:53:39 | 0:53:43 | |
on a kitten's chances of making it to adult. | 0:53:43 | 0:53:47 | |
Only 20 kittens out of 100 survive until they're 18 months old, | 0:53:47 | 0:53:52 | |
and most of them are killed by other predators. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:55 | |
When it comes to adult mountain lions, | 0:53:57 | 0:53:59 | |
one factor accounts for a staggering 49% of all deaths in the study area. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:05 | |
GUNSHOT | 0:54:05 | 0:54:07 | |
Hunting. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:10 | |
The dual impacts of competition with the new wolves in a place | 0:54:10 | 0:54:14 | |
where you already had existing human harvest on mountain lions is | 0:54:14 | 0:54:18 | |
resulting in a decline in this population. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:21 | |
Mark's figures show that the only realistic way to stabilise | 0:54:23 | 0:54:27 | |
the mountain lion numbers is by dramatically reducing | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
the amount of hunting. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:32 | |
But striking a balance between the interests of conservationists | 0:54:36 | 0:54:40 | |
and hunters is likely to be difficult. | 0:54:40 | 0:54:43 | |
The agents that are responsible for managing hunting quotas | 0:54:43 | 0:54:46 | |
generates much of its income from the sale of hunting licences. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:51 | |
We've really worked to use | 0:54:52 | 0:54:54 | |
the best available information | 0:54:54 | 0:54:56 | |
to use decades | 0:54:56 | 0:54:58 | |
and centuries of expertise | 0:54:58 | 0:55:00 | |
and education in order to learn about the wildlife populations | 0:55:00 | 0:55:04 | |
that we're responsible to manage correctly. | 0:55:04 | 0:55:07 | |
It would be extremely controversial | 0:55:08 | 0:55:10 | |
if we got rid of hunting in the state of Wyoming or in other areas. | 0:55:10 | 0:55:15 | |
F99 is now a year and three months old, | 0:55:23 | 0:55:27 | |
which means she could legally be hunted. | 0:55:27 | 0:55:30 | |
But for the time being, | 0:55:33 | 0:55:35 | |
she's managed to avoid both hunters and wolves. | 0:55:35 | 0:55:38 | |
She's sitting now. I can really see her. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:56 | |
Front part of her looks good. | 0:55:56 | 0:55:58 | |
But I can tell she's finding it hard. | 0:56:00 | 0:56:02 | |
She's lost some weight in the last month. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:05 | |
She killed a porcupine recently | 0:56:07 | 0:56:08 | |
and I think I can make out a quill right here. | 0:56:08 | 0:56:12 | |
And that's concerning, because porcupine quills, | 0:56:17 | 0:56:19 | |
they have barbs in one direction and so the more you move your skin, | 0:56:19 | 0:56:24 | |
they go deeper and deeper and deeper, they naturally won't come out. | 0:56:24 | 0:56:28 | |
She's going to have to pull it out. | 0:56:28 | 0:56:30 | |
But...if any cat could survive, this is her. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:36 | |
I think she's going to make it. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:47 | |
Mark's hopes prove ill-founded. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:12 | |
Two weeks later, | 0:57:16 | 0:57:18 | |
F99 died from internal injuries caused by the porcupine's quills. | 0:57:18 | 0:57:22 | |
In contrast, F61's daughter, Frostbite, | 0:57:39 | 0:57:43 | |
has successfully established her territory, avoiding hunters | 0:57:43 | 0:57:47 | |
and predators, enduring freezing temperatures | 0:57:47 | 0:57:51 | |
and making enough kills to survive. | 0:57:51 | 0:57:53 | |
Thanks to her and all the mountain lions | 0:57:59 | 0:58:02 | |
that the Teton Cougar Project has followed over the years, | 0:58:02 | 0:58:05 | |
our understanding of these cats has been revolutionised. | 0:58:05 | 0:58:09 | |
Their long-term future, however, depends on how we apply this | 0:58:13 | 0:58:17 | |
new-found knowledge. | 0:58:17 | 0:58:18 | |
For Frostbite and the other mountain lions here, | 0:58:23 | 0:58:26 | |
life remains on the edge. | 0:58:26 | 0:58:30 |