BBC Natural World - Mountain Lions Big Cats in High Places (2015)

Mountain Lions: Big Cats in High Places

Cougars, pumas or mountain lions? Whatever you want to call them, North America’s big cats are gorgeous creatures. You’ll see plenty of them in action in this quietly excellent Natural World based on the work of a Wyoming research project that has tracked the cats for years and revolutionised scientific understanding of what makes them tick.

In one scene, we see three adults sloping along together by some Rocky Mountain cliffs – a sight that overturned the previous consensus that cougars were solitary: nope, they’re happy to hang out together when it suits them. Some scenes here, where two siblings try to make a go of life in the wild before they’ve quite learnt to hunt are oddly moving.

But mountain lion numbers have halved in the past eight years. One issue is that wolves have been reintroduced to Wyoming – cougars’ natural competition. The other is more depressing: hunters with guns.

David Attenborough narrates this documentary following a couple of mountain lion families in Wyoming's Rocky Mountains. The dramatic story of two mothers struggling to raise their cubs is giving scientists an invaluable insight into the behaviour of these elusive predators.

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